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PIKE &> CUTLASS 




THE ESCAPE OF THE "CONSTITUTION" 



Page 209 



PIKE (^CUTLASS 

HERO TALES 
OF 

OUR NAVY 



WRITTEN &' ILLUSTRATED 
BY GEORGE G I B B S 




PHILADELPHIA ^ LONDON 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 



1900 



my 






,'i iJ J>. 



466P^ 



Copyright, 1898 and 1899, by 
The Curtis Publishing Company 

Copyright, 1899, by 
J. B. LiPPiNCOTT Company 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 




SECOND COPY, 



EUECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY J. B. LiPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA. U.S.A. 






TO THE CADETS 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY 

PAST, PRESENT, AND 

FUTURE 



NOTE 

THE writer expresses thanks for their courtesy to the editors of 
" Lippincott's Magazine" and the editors of the '♦ Saturday 
Evening Post," of Philadelphia, in which periodicals several of 
these Hero Tales have been printed. He also acknowledges his 
indebtedness for many valuable historical facts to " Cooper's Naval 
History;" "History of the Navy," by Edgar S. Maclay; " History 
of Our Navy," by John R. Spears ; " Twelve Naval Captains," by 
Molly Elliot Seawell ; "American Naval Heroes," by John Howard 
Brown; "Naval Actions of the War of 1812," by James Barnes; 
and to many valuable works and papers in the archives of the 
Library of the Navy Department at Washington. Thanks are due 
the Art Department of the " Saturday Evening Post" and the Art 
Department of " Collier's Weekly" for their permission to reprint 

many of the drawings herein. 

GEORGE GIBBS. 

August 15, 1899, 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Effrontery of Paul Jones 7 

HIS FIGHT WITH THE "DRAKE" AND DESCENT ON 
WHITEHAVEN 

A Struggle to the Death 24 

paul jones's fight with the " serapis" 

The Terrier and the Mastiff 34 

nicholas biddle's wonderful fight 

Decatur and the "Philadelphia" 46 

The Biggest Little Fight in Naval History . . 56 

DECATUR and THE TRIPOLITAN GUNBOATS 

A Double Encounter 73 

STEWART AND THE " CYANE" AND "LEVANT" 

The "Constitution" and the "Guerriere" .... 90 

The "Wasp" and the "Frolic" 106 

The "Constitution" and the "Java" 117 

The Last of the "Essex" 132 

The Captain of the Maintop 148 

CUSHING AND THE " AlBEMARLE" 15^ 

Somers AND the " Intrepid" 17^ 

The Passing of the Old Navy i8i 

OLD SALTS AND NEW SAILORS. THE OLD SHIPS AND 
THE NEW 

Farragut in Mobile Bay 220 

At the Naval Academy 231 

Our Nation's New Heroes 248 

Heroes of the Deep 274 

OUR fishing FLEET 

ix 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



The Escape of the "Constitution" . . . Frontispiece 

The Descent on Whitehaven 17- 

•* Yard-arm to Yard-arm" 27 ' 

Decatur boards the " Philadelphia" 52 »' 

The Danger of the "Intrepid" 53 / 

"No 'Dutch Courage' on this Ship" 83 - 

In the Tops of the "Constitution" loi ^ 

The "Constellation" and the "Vengeance" .... 155 •^'^ 

The Smoking Hour 189. 

Neptune comes Aboard 191 • 

Modern Sea Monsters in Action 204 

The Admiral lashed to the Rigging 225 . 

Reefing Top-sails 242 v 

They did not touch Him and His Leg was saved . . 252 v' 

Her Last Duty 263 v 



THE EFFRONTERY OF 
PAUL JONES 

IN April, 1778, there were more than two- 
score of French ships-of-the-line within 
easy sailing distance of the coast of 
England. They were tremendous three- 
decked monsters, armed with tier upon tier of 
cannon, and it took nearly a thousand offi- 
cers and men to man each of them. They lay 
at anchor in the harbors of France or sallied 
forth into the open sea to the southward to 
prey upon the commerce of Great Britain. 
But grand as they were, not one of them dared 
to do what John Paul Jones did in the little 
Continental sloop of war '' Ranger." By good 
seamanship, an element of chance, and a reck- 
less daring almost without precedent, he ac- 
complished under the very noses of the gold- 
laced French admirals what they had been 
hemming and hawing about since the begin- 
ning of the war. 

Inaction weighed upon the mind of Paul 
Jones more heavily than the hardest of labor. 
He had to be up and doing all the time, or 
trouble was brewing for everybody on ship- 

7 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

board. So when he reached Nantes, France, 
and found that the frigate which had been 
promised him was not forthcoming, he deter- 
mined, alone and unaided, to do with the Httle 
'' Ranger" what he was not yet destined to do 
with a bigger ship. No person but Paul Jones 
would for a moment have considered such a 
desperate project as the one he conceived. 
What the flower of the navy and chivalry of 
France had refused to attempt was little short 
of suicide for the mad American. But Jones 
was not cast in an ordinary mould. When he 
got to Brest, he made up his mind once and 
for all, by one good fire of British shipping to 
put an end to all the ship and town burnings 
in America. 

There was clanking of bit and chain as the 
anchor was hove up short on the little craft. 
The officers and men of the great vessels of the 
French fleet looked over the glistening water, 
warmed by the afternoon sun of spring, and 
wondered where their impetuous harbor-mate 
was off to. A week before, they knew Paul 
Jones had demanded that the French Admiral 
salute the Continental flag which the " Ranger" 
wore for the first time. And they had given 
those salutes right willingly, acknowledging 
publicly the nation they had been helping in 
secret. They knew he was a man of determi- 



THE EFFRONTERY OF PAUL JONES 

nation, and they wondered what the American 
was going to do. Some of them — the younger 
ones — wished they too were aboard the dainty 
little craft, bound out to sea under a man who 
feared nothing and dared everything. They 
heard the whistles and hoarse calls of the 
bos'n as the men tumbled down from aloft, 
the sheets flew home, and yards went up to 
their blocks with a clatter and a rush that 
showed how willing were the hands at the 
tackles. The tops'ls caught a fine breeze from 
the southward and, bracing up, the ''Ranger" 
flew down the harbor and around the point of 
Quiberon just as the sun was setting behind 
the purple cloud-streaks along the line of limit- 
less ocean. Up the coast she moved, her bow- 
sprit pointing fearlessly to the north, where lay 
the Scilly Isles. The Frenchmen left behind 
in the harbor looked enviously at the patch of 
gold, growing every moment more indistinct 
in the fading light, and said " En voila un 
brave !" 

The next day Jones left the Scilly Isles on 
his starboard quarter and steered boldly up 
Saint George's Channel into the wide Irish 
Sea. The merchantmen he boarded and cap- 
tured or scuttled did not quite know what to 
make of a man who feared so little that he 
looked into the eyes of the lion sternly and 

9 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

even menacingly when one movement might 
have destroyed him. These channel-men 
thought themselves secure, for such a venture- 
some procedure as that of Paul Jones was 
contrary to all precedent. They couldn't 
understand it at all until their vessels were 
burned and they themselves were prisoners. 
Then they knew that they had been taken 
by a man whose daring far surpassed that of 
the naval captains of England and France. 
In plain sight of land he took a brig bound 
from Ireland to Ostend. He didn't want to 
be bothered with prisoners, so he sent her crew 
ashore in their own boat to tell the story of 
their escape. Then off Dublin he took an- 
other ship, the '' Lord Chatham," and sent her 
in charge of a prize-crew down to Brest. 

Paul Jones had one great advantage. Now- 
adays, when the railway and telegraph have 
brought all the people of the world closer 
together, such a cruise would be impossible. 
The report would be sent at once to the Ad- 
miralty, and two fleets, if necessary, would 
be despatched post-haste to intercept him. 
But Paul Jones knew the value of the unex- 
pected. And although fortune favors the brave 
and the winds and waves seem always on the 
side of the ablest navigators, he had made his 
calculations carefully. He knew that unless 

lO 



THE EFFRONTERY OF PAUL JONES 

an English fleet was at some point nearer than 
Portsmouth he would have ample time to carry 
out his plans. 

He made up his mind before burning any 
shipping to capture, if possible, the Earl of 
Selkirk, who lived on St. Mary's Isle, and to 
hold him as a hostage. By this means he 
hoped to compel England to treat American 
prisoners with humanity, according to the laws 
of war. But on the twenty-first of April he 
picked up a fisherman who gave him infor- 
mation which for the moment drove all thought 
of the Earl of Selkirk and the shipping from 
his mind. Inside the harbor of Carrickfergus, 
where Belfast is, lay a man-of-war of twenty 
guns, the *' Drake," a large ship, with more 
men than the " Rangrer" carried. He would 
drop down alongside of her under cover of the 
night and board her before her crew could 
tumble out of their hammocks. Such an at- 
tempt in a fortified harbor of the enemy would 
not have occurred to most men, but Paul Jones 
believed in achieving the impossible. He 
waited until nightfall, and then, with a wind 
freshening almost to a gale, sped up the har- 
bor. The " Drake" lay well out in the road- 
stead, her anchor lights only marking her posi- 
tion in the blackness of the night. Carefully 

watching his time. Captain Jones stood forward 

II 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

looking at the lights that showed how she 
swung to the tide. He kept full headway on 
the ''Ranger," until she could swing up into 
the wind almost under the jib-boom of the 
Englishman. By dropping his anchor across 
the chain of the "Drake" he hoped to swing 
down alongside, grapple, and board before the 
crew were fairly awake. 

But this time he was destined to fail. Every- 
thing depended on the dropping of the anchor 
at the proper time. His orders were not 
obeyed, for not until the "Ranger" had drifted 
clear of the Englishman's chain did the splash 
come. Then it was too late. Fortunately the 
watch on the " Drake" were not suspicious. 
Had they been wider awake they would have 
had the "Ranger" at their mercy, and Paul 
Jones might not have survived to fight them a 
few days later. As it was, they only swore at 
the stupidity of the Irish lubber they thought 
he was. Jones knew that his chance was gone, 
and as soon as a strain came on the cable it 
was cut, and he filled away to sea again. 

He now returned to his original plan of 
burning the shipping of some important town. 
He decided on Whitehaven as his first objec- 
tive point, and the '^Ranger," sailing leisurely 
over, dropped anchor in the outer harbor dur- 
ing the following night. 

12 



THE EFFRONTERY OF PAUL JONES 

Whitehaven was a town of considerable im- 
portance in the Scottish and North of England 
shipping trade. The inhabitants were for the 
greater part sailors and others who made their 
living by the sea, and there was never a time 
when the docks were not crowded with vessels, 
of all countries, from the sloop to the full-rigged 
ship, discharging or taking on cargoes which 
figured largely in England's commerce. At 
one side of the harbor lay the town, and 
farther around to the left lay the docks where 
the shipping was. Over two hundred vessels, 
large and small, lay there or out in the road- 
stead. Two forts, mounting fifteen guns each, 
guarded the town. They were adequately 
garrisoned, and it looked like a piece of des- 
perate folly to make the attempt upon a town 
directly under their guns. 

Paul Jones knew Whitehaven from his child- 
hood. He remembered just where the guard- 
houses were to be found, and knew how to 
force the entrance to the barracks. By three 
o'clock in the morning he was ready to make 
the assault. Two cutters with fifteen men in 
each, armed with cutlasses and pistols, were all 
he took to do the work. With thirty men he 
went fearlessly and confidently to intimidate 
the soldiers, spike the guns in the forts, over- 
awe the town, and burn the shipping ! Lieu- 

13 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

tenant Wallingford was given command of 
one of the cutters. His mission was to burn 
the shipping to the left. The other cutter 
Paul Jones commanded himself, and assumed 
the more hazardous duty of holding with his 
fifteen men the forts and the town, until such 
a blaze should illumine the morning sky that 
all England would know that the burning of 
Portland, Maine, was avenged. 

Quietly they pulled up towards the great 
stone dock, where the shipping-houses were. 
The tide was very low as they moved past the 
schooners and brigs in the harbor, many of 
them careened far over on their sides, waiting 
for a rise in the tide to pull down to more 
comfortable moorings. But the boats went by 
without challenge or notice, and Wallingford's 
cutter had slipped away like a gray shadow in 
the darkness. The first violet streaks of dawn 
were just beginning to throw the shore-line to 
the east in hazy silhouette when they reached 
the landing-place. 

The dawn was coming up quickly now, and 
Paul Jones led his fifteen men at a run to the 
nearest fort. With cutlass in one hand and 
pistol in the other, they dashed upon the first 
sentry. There was no time for stealth, so 
they bore him down by sheer weight. The 
next one saw them coming, but Jones locked 

14 



THE EFFRONTERY OF PAUL JONES 

him and the rest of them in the guard-house. 
Then he proceeded to spike the guns. So 
quick was the work that not a shot was fired. 
They were running towards the second fort 
before the soldiers were quite sure what had 
happened. Even then they were too terrified 
to follow in pursuit. As the gallant band ran 
towards the other fort they got a clear view of 
the harbor, a glimmering sheet of orange and 
violet, under the morning glow. But strain 
his eyes as he might, their captain could get 
no sign of Wallingford or his work. They 
dashed as desperately at this fort as at the 
other and were equally successful, intimidating 
the garrison and spiking every gun they could 
find. 

But what could be the trouble with Walling- 
ford ? Still seeing no blaze or even spark 
among the shipping to the eastward, Paul Jones 
felt that the main object of his descent upon the 
town was to prove a failure. So he dashed 
down the street from the fort towards the dock, 
pistol in hand, followed by his crew, who rolled 
along grinning at the ease with which they had 
accomplished their work. One of them had a 
bad cut over the head and the blood was stain- 
ing his shoulder, but he didn't seem to mind it 
in the least. To their surprise as they passed 
the houses the people began coming out of their 

15 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

doors shaking their fists at and cursing them. 
They grinned no longer, for they knew that 
some one had betrayed them. Jones looked 
around for the fifteenth man. The fellow with 
the cut wiped some blood from his cheek and 
said, — 

'' Dave Freeman, sir, he's gone !" 

Freeman was the traitor, then. 

But there was no time for parley or revenge. 
The mob was collecting in the street they had 
left and soon would be down on the dock. 
Though Wallingford failed, Paul Jones would 
not. He dashed into a house on the dock, and 
seizing a burning brand went aboard one of 
the largest vessels of the fleet. He hastily 
pulled together some straw and hatchway 
gratings and soon had a roaring blaze. Then 
one of his men spilled a barrel of tar in the 
midst of it to make the destruction more sure. 

He had been so intent upon his work that 
he had not noticed the mob that had gathered 
on the dock. The place seemed black with 
people, and their number was increasing every 
minute. Then, leaving the work of destruc- 
tion to the others, he went down alone to face 
fifteen hundred infuriated people with a single 
flint-lock pistol ! Dave Freeman had done his 
work well, for they seemed to pour from every 
street and doorway. But Paul Jones was de- 

i6 




THK DESCENT ON WHITEHAVEN 



THE EFFRONTERY OF PAUL JONES 

termined that the work should be finished, and 
took a position where he could command 
the boat-landing and retreat of his men. The 
people came down in a body to within twenty 
paces of Paul Jones and then — stopped. 
There was something in the look of the man 
and the menacing black barrel that moved 
from one to the other that made them quail 
and fall over each other to get out of range. 
Those in the background swore and pushed 
gallantly, but the front rank was a line of 
straw, and Paul Jones moved it with his old 
flint-lock as though a Biscay wind-squall was 
striking it. For fifteen minutes and longer he 
stood there, immovable, the master of the 
situation, the picture of the intimidating power 
of one resolute man over a mob. Such an- 
other instance is hardly to be found in his- 
tory. 

When the black smoke rolled up from half 
a dozen vessels of the fleet, Paul Jones's crew 
retreated in an orderly manner to the cutter. 
Jones walked down the steps into the boat, 
covering the crowd the while. Then his men 
leisurely rowed away, not a shot having been 
fired. It was not until the cutter was well out 
into the bay that some of the bewildered 
soldiers recovered sufficiently to load two 
cannon that Paul Jones had overlooked. 

2 17 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

These they brought to bear upon the cutter 
dancing down in the sunrise towards the " Ran- 
ger" and fired. The shot whistled wide of 
the mark, and Jones, to show his contempt of 
such long-range courage, fired only his pistol 
in return. 

But that was not the end of this remarkable 
cruise. Havinor failed to find the Earl of Sel- 
kirk on St. Mary's Isle, Paul Jones squared 
away to the southward, hoping to pick up an- 
other full-rigged ship off Dublin or to meet 
with the " Drake" again. He knew that by 
this time the Admiralty was well informed as 
to his whereabouts, and that before many hours 
had passed he would be obliged to run the 
gauntlet of a whole line of British fire. But 
he hated to be beaten at anything, and since 
the night when he failed to grapple her had 
been burning to try conclusions yard-arm to 
yard-arm with the " Drake." 

On the twenty-fourth of April, just two 
weeks after sailino- from the harbor of Brest, 
he hove to off the Lough of Belfast, where 
within the harbor he could plainly see the tall 
spars of the Englishman swinging at his anchor- 
age. Paul Jones was puzzled at first to know 
how he was to lure the "Drake" out to sea, 
for a battle under the lee of the land in the 
harbor was not to be thought of So he went 



THE EFFRONTERY OF PAUL JONES 

about from one tack to another, wearing ship 
and backing and filling, until the curiosity of 
the English captain, Burdon, was thoroughly 
aroused, and he sent one of his junior officers 
out in a cutter to find out who the stranger 
was. Jones ran his guns in and manoeuvred 
so cleverly that the stern of the '' Ranger" was 
kept towards the boat until he was well aboard. 
The young officer was rather suspicious, but, 
nothing daunted, pulled up to the gangway 
in true man-o'-war style and went on deck. 
There he was met by an officer, who cour- 
teously informed him that he was on board the 
Continental sloop of war ''Ranger," Captain 
Paul Jones, and that he and his boat's crew 
were prisoners of war. 

In the meanwhile Captain Burdon, finding 
that his boat's crew did not return, got up his 
anchor, shook out his sails, and cleared ship for 
action. He was already suspicious, and too 
good a seaman to let unpreparedness play 
any part in his actions. There was not 
very much wind, and slowly the " Drake" bore 
down on the silent vessel which lay, sails flap- 
ping idly as she rolled, on the swell of the Irish 
Sea. As the afternoon drew on the wind al- 
most failed, so that it was an hour before 
sunset before the " Drake" could get within 
speaking range. Hardly a ripple stirred the 

19 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

surface of the glassy swells, and the stillness 
was ominous ^nd oppressive. 

When within a cable's length of the *' Ran- 
ger" Captain Burdon sent up his colors. 
Captain Jones followed his lead in a moment 
by running up the Stars and Stripes. 

Suddenly a voice, looming big and hoarse 
in the silence, came from the '' Drake," — 

^' What ship is that?" 

Paul Jones mounted the hammock nettings 
and, putting his speaking-trumpet to his lips, 
coolly replied, — 

''The American Continental ship 'Ranger.' 
We have been waiting for you. The sun is 
but little more than an hour from setting, and 
it is time to begin." 

Then he turned and gave a low order to the 

man at the wheel, and the "Ranger" wore 

around so that her broadside would bear. Paul 

Jones always believed in striking the first blow. 

When they came before the wind the word 

was passed, and a mass of flame seemed to 

leap clear across the intervening water to the 

"Drake." The "Ranger" shuddered with the 

shock and felt in a moment the crashing of the 

other s broadside through her hull and rigging. 

The battle was on in earnest. Yard-arm to 

yard-arm they went, drifting down the wind, 

and the deep thundering of the cannonade was 

20 



THE EFFRONTERY OF PAUL JONES 

carried over to the Irish hills, where masses of 
people were watching the smoke-enveloped 
duel. The sun sank low, touching the purple 
hilltops, a golden ball that shed a ruddy glow 
over the scene and made the spectacle seem a 
dream rather than reality. Still they fought 
on. 

It was a glorious fight — and as fair a one as 
history records. The " Drake" pounded away 
at the ''Ranger's" hull alone, while Jones was 
doing all he could with his smaller pieces 
to cripple his enemy's rigging. First the 
*' Drake's" fore-tops'l yard was cut in two. 
The main dropped next, and the mizzen gaff 
was shot away. For purposes of manoeuvring, 
the '' Drake" was useless and drifted down, 
her jib trailing in the water and her shrouds 
and rigging dragging astern. She was almost 
a wreck. As she heeled over on the swell, the 
gunners on the ''Ranger" could see human 
blood mingling with the water of the division 
tubs that came from her scuppers. The first 
flag was shot away, but another was quickly 
run up to its place. In a moment that too was 
shot away from the hoisting halyard and fell 
into the water astern, where it trailed among 
the wreckage. But still she fought on. 

On the " Raneer" the loss had been com- 
paratively slight. Lieutenant Wallingford and 

21 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

one other man had been killed and there were 
five or six wounded men in the cockpit. Jones 
seemed to be everywhere, but still remained 
uninjured and directed the firingr until the end. 
He saw that the sharpshooters in his tops 
were doing terrific execution on the decks of 
his adversary, and at last he saw the imposing 
figure of Captain Burdon twist around for a 
second and then sink down to the deck. An- 
other officer fell, and in a moment above the 
crash of division firing and the rattle of the 
musketry overhead he heard a cry for quarter. 

The battle was at an end in a little over an 
hour. It was almost as great a victory as 
that of the '' Bonhomme Richard" over the 
" Serapis." Paul Jones's ship carried eighteen 
guns ; the Englishman carried twenty. The 
"Ranger" had one hundred and twenty- three 
men ; the " Drake" had one hundred and 
fifty-one and carried many volunteers besides. 
The " Ranger" lost two killed and had six 
wounded ; the '' Drake" lost forty-two killed 
and wounded. Against great odds John Paul 
Jones still remained victorious. 

The people on shore heard the cannonading 
cease and saw the great clouds of gold-tinted 
smoke roll away to the south. There they 
saw the two vessels locked as if in an em- 
brace of death and a great cheer went up. 

22 



THE EFFRONTERY OF PAUL JONES 

They thought the " Drake" invincible. The 
gray of twilight turned to black, and the ships 
vanished like spectres in the darkness. But 
late that night some fishermen in a boat came 
ashore with a sail from the store-room of the 
" Drake." They said it had been given them 
by John Paul Jones. The people knew then 
that the " Drake" had been captured. 

When the "Ranger" returned with her 
prizes to Brest, and his people told the tale of 
Paul Jones's victory, France was electrified. 
Neither in France nor in England would they 
at first believe it. France made him her hero. 
England offered ten thousand guineas for his 
head. 



23 



A STRUGGLE TO THE 
DEATH 

NEVER, since the beginning of time, 
has there been a fiercer sea-fight than 
that between the '' Bonhomme Rich- 
ard" and the "Serapis." No struggle has 
been more dogged — no victory greater. 

Three — four times during the night-long 
battle any other man than Paul Jones would 
have struck his colors. His main-deck battery 
and crews blown to pieces — his water-line gap- 
ing with wounds — his sides battered into one 
great chasm — still he fought on. His prison- 
ers released — his masts tottering — his rudder 
gone — his ship afire below and aloft, his resist- 
ance was the more desperate. The thought 
of surrender never occurred to him. 

After taking the " Drake" in a gallant fight, 
burning Whitehaven, and terrorizing the whole 
British coast, Paul Jones went to Paris, where 
a commission to the converted East Indiaman, 
the ''Bonhomme Richard," awaited him. Put- 
ting her in the best shape possible, he boldly 
steered across for English waters. Paul Jones 
thirsted for larger game. 

24. 



A STRUGGLE TO THE DEATH 

When Captain Pearson, with the new frigate 
''Serapis," on a fine September afternoon in 
1779, sighted Paul Jones, he signalled his mer- 
chant convoy to scatter, and piped all hands, 
who rushed jubilantly to quarters. The oppor- 
tunity of his life had come, for the capture of 
the rebel frigate meant glory and a baronetcy. 
But he reckoned without his host. 

Across the oily waters came the cheery 
pipes of the boatswain's mate of the " Richard" 
as Jones swung her up to meet her adversary, 
and Pearson knew his task would not be an 
easy one. The wind fell so light that the sun 
had sunk behind the light on Flamborough 
Head before the ships drifted up to fighting 
distance, and it was dark before they were 
ready to come to close quarters. On the 
" Bonhomme Richard," Jones's motley crew, 
stripped to the waist, were drawn up at the 
guns, peering out through the ports at the 
dark shadow on the starboard bow they were 
slowly overhauling. 

The decks were sanded, the hammocks piled 
around the wheel, and there at the break of 
the poop stood the captain, trumpet in hand, 
turning now and then to give an order to 
Richard Dale or his midshipmen, quiet and 
composed, with the smile on his face men saw 
before the fight with the *' Drake." The 

25 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

clumsy hulk rolled to the ground-swell, and the 
creaking of the masts and clamping of the 
sheet-blocks were all that broke the silence of 
the night. No excitement was apparent, and 
the stillness seemed the greater for an oc- 
casional laugh from the gunners, or the rattle 
of a cutlass newly settled in its sheath. 

Then close aboard from out the blackness 
came a voice, — 

"What ship is that?" 

Paul Jones moved to the lee mizzen-shrouds 
and slowly replied, — 

*' I can't hear what you say." 

He wanted all of his broadside to bear on 
the Englishman. 

"What ship is that? Answer, or I shall 
fire." 

The moment had arrived. For answer 
Jones leaned far over the rail of the poop and 
passed the word. A sheet of flame flashed 
from one of the ''Richard's" after eighteen- 
pounders, followed by a terrific broadside 
which quaked the rotten timbers of the '' Rich- 
ard" from stem to stern. At the same time 
the guns of the '' Serapis" were brought to 
bear, and her side seemed a mass of flame. 

On the "Richard," two of the eighteen- 

pounders burst at this first broadside, killing 

their crews, heaving up the deck above, and 

26 



A STRUGGLE TO THE DEATH 

driving the men from the upper tier. The 
others cracked and were useless. In this terri- 
ble situation Paul Jones knew the chances for 
victory were against him, for he had thought 
his lower battery his mainstay in a broadside 
fight. 

But if he felt daunted his men did not know 
it, for, amid the hurricane of fire and roar of the 
guns, his ringing voice, forward, aft, every- 
where, told them that victory was still theirs 
for the gaining. He ordered all of the men 
from the useless battery to the main deck ; and 
it was well he did so, — for so terrific was the 
fire that the six ports of the " Bonhomme 
Richard" were blown into one, and the shot 
passed clear through the ship, cutting away all 
but the supports of the deck above. No one 
but the marines guarding the powder-monkeys 
were left there, but they stood firm at their 
posts while the balls came whistling through 
and dropped into the sea beyond. But the 
fire of Paul Jones's battery did not slacken for 
a moment. There seemed to be two men to 
take the place of every man who was killed, 
and he swept the crowded deck of the "Sera- 
pis" from cathead to gallery. 

In the meanwhile, the " Serapis," having the 
wind of the '' Richard," drew ahead, and Pear- 
son hauled his sheets to run across and rake 

27 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

Jones's bows. But he miscalculated, and the 
American ran her boom over the stern of the 
Englishman. For a moment neither ship could 
fire at the other, and they hung together 
in silence, fast locked in a deadly embrace. 
Jones's crew, eager to renew the battle, glared 
forward at the shimmering battle-lanterns of 
the Englishman, cursing because their guns 
would not bear. The smoke lifted, and Paul 
Jones, who was deftly training one of his guns 
at the main-mast of the '' Serapis," saw Pear- 
son slowly climb up on the rail. The silence 
had deceived the Englishman, and his voice 
came clearly across the deck, — 

'' Have you struck?" 

A harsh lau^h broke from the "Richard." 

"Struck!" Paul Jones's answer came in a 
roar that was heard from truck to keelson. 
" I haven't begun to fight yet !" 

A cheer went up that drowned the rattle of 
the musketry from the tops, and the fight went 
on. Swinging around again the jib-boom of 
the "Serapis" came over the poop so that 
Paul Jones could touch it. Rushing to the 
mast, he seized a hawser, and quickly taking 
several turns with it, lashed the bowsprit of 
his enemy to his mizzen-rigging. Grappling- 
irons were dropped over on the enemy — and 

the battle became a battle to the death. 

28 



A STRUGGLE TO THE DEATH 

*' Well done, lads ; we've got her now." 
And Jones turned to his nine-pounders, which 
renewed their fire. Both crews fought with the 
fury of desperation. The men at the guns, 
stripped to the buff, grimed and blackened with 
powder, worked with extraordinary quickness. 
Every shot told. But the fire of the '' Serapis" 
was deadly, and she soon silenced every gun 
but Jones's two nine-pounders, which he still 
worked with dogged perseverance. He sent 
Dale below to hurry up the powder charges. 
To his horror Dale found that the master-at- 
arms, knowing the ship to be sinking, had re- 
leased a hundred English prisoners. The situ- 
ation was terrifying. With foes within and 
without, there seemed no hope. But Dale, 
with ready wit, ordered the prisoners to the 
pumps and to fight the fire near the magazine, 
telling them that their only hope of life lay in 
that. And at it they went, until they dropped 
of sheer exhaustion. 

The doctor passed Dale as he rushed upon 
deck. "Sir," said he to Jones, "the water is 
up to the lower deck, and we will sink with all 
hands in a few minutes." 

Jones turned calmly to the doctor, as though 

surprised. "What, doctor," said he, "would 

you have me strike to a drop of water ? Here, 

help me get this gun over." 

29 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

The surgeon ran below, but Jones got the 
gun over, and served it, too. 

To add to the horror of the situation, just 
at this moment a ball from a new enemy came 
screaming just over the head of Paul Jones, 
and the wind of it knocked off his hat. The 
carpenter, Stacy, ran up breathlessly. 

'' My God, she's firing on us — the ' Alliance,' 
sir !" And the captain glanced astern where 
the flashes marked the position of the crazy 
Landais, firing on his own consort. 

If ever Paul Jones had an idea of hauling 
his colors, it must have been at this moment. 

He had been struck on the head by a 
splinter, and the blood surged down over his 
shoulder — but he didn't know it. 

Just then a fear-crazed wretch rushed past 
him, trying to find the signal-halyards, crying 
wildly as he ran, — 

*' Quarter ! For God's sake, quarter ! Our 
ship is sinking !" 

Jones heard the words, and, turning quickly, 
he hurled an empty pistol at the man, which 
struck him squarely between the eyes, knock- 
ing him headlong down the hatch. 

Pearson heard the cry. " Do you call for 
quarter ?" he shouted. 

For answer Paul Jones's nine-pounder cut 
away the rail on which he was standing. 

30 



A STRUGGLE TO THE DEATH 

Then came the turn in the fight. Horrible 
as had been the slaughter on the " Richard," 
the quick flashes from his tops told Paul Jones 
that his marines had not been placed aloft in 
vain. He saw the crew on the spar-deck of 
his enemy fall one by one and men fleeing 
below for safety. Raising his trumpet, he 
cheered his topmen to further efforts. In their 
unceasing fire lay his only hope. 

One of them in his maintop with great de- 
liberateness laid aside his musket and picked 
up a leather bucket of hand grenades. Jones 
watched him anxiously as, steadying himself, 
he slowly lay out along the foot-rope of the 
main-yard. His captain knew what he meant 
to do. He reached the lift, which was directly 
over the main hatch of the ''Serapis." There 
he coolly fastened his bucket to the sheet-block, 
and, taking careful aim, began dropping his 
grenades down the open hatchway. The 
second one fell on a row of exposed powder 
charges. The explosion that followed shook 
sea and sky, and the air was filled with black- 
ened corpses. The smoke came up in a 
mighty cloud, and soon the forks of flame 
licked through it and up the rigging. 

That was the supreme moment of Paul 
Jones's life, for he knew that victory was his. 

The fire from the " Serapis" ceased as if by 

31 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

magic. The explosion had blown a whole 
battery to eternity, and, as the smoke cleared 
a little, he could see the figure of Pearson 
leaning against the pin-rail, almost deserted, 
his few men running here and there, stricken 
mad with fear. Then the English captain 
stumbled heavily, as though blind, over the 
slippery deck towards the mizzen, where the 
flag had been nailed, and with his own hands 
tore it frantically from the mast. 

A mighty victory for Paul Jones it was. But 
now, as the flames mounted higher through 
the rifts of smoke, he could see at what a cost. 
His dead lay piled upon the poop so that he 
could not get to the gangway. His masts 
were shot through and through, and strained at 
the stays at every lift of the bow. The fire, 
though beaten from the magazine, still burst 
from the forward hatches, firing the tangled 
rigging and outlining them in its lurid hues 
against the black beyond. The water had 
risen, and the freshening breeze lashed the 
purple foam in at the lower-deck ports. For 
hours the men fought against their new enemy ; 
but towards five in the morning their captain 
decided that no human power could save her. 
He then began moving his wounded and pris- 
oners to the " Serapis" 

The first gray streaks of dawn saw Paul 

32 



A STRUGGLE TO THE DEATH 

Jones upon the poop of the " Serapis," looking 
to the leeward, where the "Richard" lay rolling 
heavily. Her flag, shot away again and again, 
had been replaced and floated proudly from 
its staff. Lower and lower she sank into the 
water, mortally wounded, a heavy swell wash- 
ing in at the lower gun-ports. At length, 
heaving her stern high in the air, her pennant 
fluttering a last defiance to the captured "Ser- 
apis," she slowly disappeared, dying grandly as 
she had lived. 

After Pearson's release, the British govern- 
ment offered ten thousand guineas for Paul 
Jones, dead or alive. Forty-two British frigates 
chased him and scoured the Channel ; but 
Jones passed within sight of them, the Ameri- 
can flag flying at the mast, and reached France 
in safety, where he became the hero of the 
hour. And so long as the Stars and Stripes 
fly over American war-ships will the men who 
know hold up as their ideal of a dogged 
warrior and gallant seaman the hero of Flam- 
borough — Paul Jones. 



33 



THE TERRIER AND THE 
MASTIFF 

THE first of the great American captains 
to give his life to the cause of liberty 
was Nicholas Biddle. And the action 
in which he lost it is the finest example of 
daring and hardihood in the little known pages 
of naval history. His part in that glorious 
action must ever remain unknown as to its 
details since but five out of his crew remained 
alive to tell of It, and we are chiefly indebted 
to the British accounts for the information 
which has been handed down. 

Nicholas Biddle began his naval career by 
being shipwrecked on a desert shoal at the 
age of thirteen. But being rescued, with his 
four companions, at the end of two months, 
his ardor was so little dampened that as soon 
as opportunity offered he immediately went 
forth in search of further adventures on the 
sea. A war between England and Spain being 
Imminent he went to London, and succeeded 
in getting a midshipman's warrant on the ship 
of Captain — afterwards Admiral — Sterling. 
But just before the declaration of indepen- 

34 



THE TERRIER AND THE MASTIFF 

dence of his own country, a voyage of discovery 
to the North Pole was proposed by the Royal 
Geographical Society, and this opportunity 
seemed to hold forth infinitely more possibili- 
ties for advancement than the daily port rou- 
tine of a British frigate of war. 

So, Admiral Sterling refusing Biddle's mild 
request to be transferred to one of the ves- 
sels, the young man took it upon himself to 
doff his gold-laced uniform and present him- 
self upon the '' Carcase" in very shabby sailor 
clothes, upon which he was forthwith entered 
upon her books as a sailor before the mast. 
He was in glorious company, though, for Ho- 
ratio Nelson — afterwards to be the greatest 
admiral England has ever known — shared his 
humble lot as a jacky, although his prospects 
in the service were more brilliant than Bid- 
die's. The expedition, having accomplished 
its purpose, returned to England in 1774, both 
young Nelson and Biddle having been ap- 
pointed coxswains for meritorious service. 

When hostilities in the United States began, 
Biddle, of course, resigned from the British 
navy and offered his services to the Conti- 
nental Congress. His first commission was 
the command of the "Camden," a galley 
fitted out by the State of Pennsylvania for 
the defence of the Delaware River. He was 

35 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

then made a captain in the naval service, and 
took command of the ''Andrew Doria," of 
fourteen guns and one hundred and thirty 
men. 

Just before Commodore Hopkins's fleet 
hoisted anchor, Biddle had an opportunity to 
show his intrepidity in a very personal way. 
Two men who had deserted from his vessel 
had been taken and were placed in prison at 
Lewistown. Biddle sent an officer and a 
squad of men ashore to bring them off But 
the officer returned to the ship and reported 
that the deserters had joined with the other 
prisoners, and barricaded the door, swearing 
that no man alive would take them. Biddle 
put on his side-arms and, taking only a young 
midshipman with him, went at once to the 
prison. The door was tightly barred from 
the inside, and the prisoners, led by one of the 
deserters named Green, shook their fists and 
pointed their weapons at him. Some of the 
more venturesome of the townsfolk, who only 
needed a resolute leader, now smashed down 
the door at the naval officer's directions, and 
Biddle, drawing both his pistols, quickly 
stepped within the opening. Green stood in 
front of his ill-favored companions, his eye 
gleaming villanously down the barrel of his 
flint-lock. Without moving his eye from the 

36 



THE TERRIER AND THE MASTIFF 

man, and planting himself squarely in the 
doorway, Biddle said, steadily, — 

'' Now, Green, if you don't take good aim, 
you are a dead man !" 

There was a moment's pause, after which 
the pistol fell a little, and finally, under the res- 
olute attitude of his captain, the fellow broke 
down. He was completely awed, and at Bid- 
die's command dropped his pistol to the floor 
and allowed himself to be conducted to the 
ship. Their leader cowed, the remainder of 
the prisoners permitted the Lewlstown militia, 
who had recovered from their fright, to come 
In and make them fast again. 

This Incident had Its moral effect upon his 
men, and never again, when they learned to 
know him, was Biddle troubled with disaffec- 
tion among his crew. The fury with which 
they went Into the fights that followed showed 
how much he was a man after their own hearts. 

After Commodore Esek Hopkins's unsuc- 
cessful encounter with the British fleet, the 
''Andrew Doria" put to sea and cruised off 
the coast of Newfoundland. Biddle captured 
a prize laden with arms and ammunition, 
which he carried to port, where they greatly 
strengthened Washington's army, which was 
badly In need of supplies of all kinds. He 
captured a transport and four hundred British 

37 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

soldiers, and made a great number of mer- 
chant prizes. He would hare taken more, but 
he only had five men left aboard to take the 
*' Doria" back to Philadelphia. 

The Congress had authorized the building 
of several new frigates, and one of these, the 
*' Randolph," of thirty-two guns, was just off 
the stocks. Biddle was made commander of 
her, and set immediately about finishing her 
and making her ready for sea. He had great 
difficulty in getting a crew, as privateering, 
where the prizes were greater and ship ac- 
tions less frequent, proved more attractive 
to the adventurous spirits of the day. Con- 
gress, however, drafted a number of men from 
the army, and the crew was completed by the 
enlistment of volunteers from among the pris- 
oners taken on prizes. After many difficulties 
with this motley crew, Biddle at last got to sea 
in February, 1777. 

The men of his old crew were with him to a 
man, but many of the volunteers were shoal- 
water sailors, and his army recruits didn't 
know a sheet from a buntline. So when he 
ran into a Hatteras gale a few days out, the 
"Randolph" carried away her masts, and was 
altogether so uncomfortable a wreck that the 
volunteers mutinied, and Biddle had a hard 
time getting into Charleston harbor. He suc- 

38 



THE TERRIER AND THE MASTIFF 

ceeded at last in refitting and in instilling some 
of the man-of-war spirit into his crew, sailing at 
last for the West Indies. Then his luck turned 
for the better, and he sighted the English ship 
''True Briton," twenty guns, convoying three 
merchantmen. Without accident he succeeded 
in taking them and in bringing all four prizes 
safe and sound into Charleston harbor. This 
was the first capture of the navy in the South, 
and, as the prizes were again liberally supplied 
with arms, the capture was doubly welcome. 
So much did Congress appreciate this affair 
that they had a medal struck off in Biddle's 
honor. The British hearing of this exploit of 
the ''Randolph," sent a fleet south, and suc- 
ceeded in blockading her at Charleston for a 
time. 

The State of South Carolina got ready a 
fleet in the hope of raising the blockade, but 
before they could get to sea the Englishmen 
had disappeared. 

In February, 1778, Biddle went out with a 
little fleet composed of the " General Moul- 
trie," 18, the "Polly," 16, and the *' Fair 
American," 14, in search of the British squad- 
ron. But missing them, they only succeeded 
in taking a few merchant vessels of the en- 
emy. They boarded a number of Dutch and 
French ships, and Biddle knew that before 

39 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

long they must fall in with some of the enemy. 
To Captain Blake, who was dining with him, 
he said, "I would not be surprised if my old 
ship should be out after us. As to anything 
that carries her guns upon one deck, I think 
myself a match for her." 

On the afternoon of the 7th of March, a sail 
was made out to windward, and they sailed up 
to examine her. As she came down with the 
wind she was made out to be square-rigged ; 
but, bows on, she looked rather like a sloop 
than a frigate. A short time later she could 
be made out more plainly a man-of-war, — evi- 
dently of the enemy, — coming down speedily, 
and, from the way she was sailing, able to out- 
foot any of the squadron. Biddle could see 
that she stood well out of the water; but a 
small frigate might do that And if she was 
only a frigate of forty guns or under, he prom- 
ised himself a great battle that day. But if she 
were a ship of the line, not only the " Ran- 
dolph" but the smaller vessels were in great 
danger, for nothing save a craft somewhere 
near her size could resist the broadsides of the 
two heavy gun-tiers. 

He quickly made his resolution. Signalling 
to the fleet of cruisers and prizes to go about, 
he himself took the deck and sent the little 

''Randolph" boldly down towards the stranger. 

40 



THE TERRIER AND THE MASTIFF 

On she came, bowing majestically over the 
water, never making a sign until nearing gun- 
shot distance, when the sound of the pipes 
and the calls on her deck showed that she was 
clearing ship for action. Biddle had been pre- 
pared for an hour. Now, as she came a little 
closer to the wind, the American captain discov- 
ered what he had suspected — two long lines 
of muzzles running out of her leeward ports. 

She was a line-of-battle-ship, then. 

He clinched his jaws and looked over his 
shoulder to where the prizes were scurrying 
away in the gathering darkness. They at 
least would be safe. But he did not shift his 
course a point, saiHng on until the canvas of 
the great ship seemed to tower far above the 
little spars of his own vessel. The men of the 
*' Randolph" were aghast at the action of their 
captain. To them an English '' Sixty-Four" 
was the epitome of all that was powerful upon 
the seas. Biddle thought so, too ; but there 
was nothing of timidity in his voice as he bade 
his gunners stand by to train upon her. He 
knew that this battle would be his last, for he 
resolved in those few moments that he would 
not give up his ship while one plank of her 
remained above water. The enemy might 
blow him out of the water and send him to the 
bottom, but before she did it he would give 

41 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

them such a lesson in patriotism that the world 
would not easily forget it. 

His men guessed something of what was in 
his mind, and by the time the big ship hove 
close aboard they were keyed up to the fight- 
ing pitch, waiting with the utmost impatience 
for the first shot to be fired. The dusk had 
fallen, but the great loom of the sails of the 
English frigate showed plainly as she came 
closer. They were scarcely a pistol-shot apart 
when a figure on the Englishman mounted the 
hammock nettings aft, and a voice came clearly 
across the water, — 

•'Ahoy, the frigate!" 

Biddle paused a moment to gain time, and 
then giving a word to his division officers, 
lifted his speaking-trumpet, — 

••What ship is that?" 

•• His Britannic Majesty's ship-of-the-line 
•Yarmouth,' Captain Vincent. Who are you? 
Answer, or I will be compelled to fire." 

Anodier pause as Biddle directed the Amer- 
ican colors to be run up to the mast, and then 
said, — 

•'This is the American Continental ship 
'Randolph,' Captain Biddle!" 

Without the pause of a second a tremen- 
dous broadside was poured into the English- 
man, and in a moment the battle was on. 

42 



THE TERRIER AND THE MASTIFF 

Biddle had gained a slight advantage in 
position by waiting as he did, and the '' Ran- 
dolph's" broadsides did great execution on 
the crowded decks of her adversary. But the 
" Yarmouth" men sprang to their guns, and 
in a few moments were firing their tremendous 
broadside of thirty guns as fast as they could 
be served and run out. 

On the '' Randolph" Riddle's men were 
working well, but the crashing of the shot and 
the flying splinters were terrific. In fifteen 
minutes the decks were covered with the 
bodies of dead and dying men, and the sur- 
geon and his mate below in the cockpit, cov- 
ered with blood, were laboring to help such of 
those as could be aided, and the decks, in spite 
of the sand, were so slippery that as the ship 
rolled it was difficult to stand upright upon 
them. Many of the guns of one of the broad- 
sides were disabled, and there was not a gun 
that had a full crew to man it. 

Biddle walked to and fro from one battery 
to another, lending a word here and a hand 
there, acting as sponger or tackle or hand- 
spikeman, wherever he was most needed. 
The men fought with the energy of despair — 
the despair of the dying. If they were to die, 
they would die hard, and the guns were loaded 
as though they would fire as many times as 

43 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

they could in the short time left them. The 
English aimed more deliberately. But when 
the dreaded broadside came, it dealt a blow 
that shook the smaller ship from stem to stern. 

Biddle, although badly wounded, refused to 
leave the deck, and, ordering a stool to be 
placed where he could best direct the firing, 
sat calmly down, though in great agony, and 
gave the orders to his officers, who repeated 
them to the men. 

* * ♦ * ^ ^ 

It has never been discovered just what hap- 
pened on the ''Randolph." In spite of her 
losses, she was keeping up her fire wonder- 
fully, when, with scarcely a warning of any 
kind, she blew up. 

The force of the explosion was so great that 
the ship split in two, and sank immediately. 
The air was filled with guns, spars, and the 
blackened bodies of men, many of which fell 
upon the deck of the ''Yarmouth." An Amer- 
ican ensign, neatly rolled in a ball, ready to 
be sent aloft on the "Randolph" if the others 
had been shot away, fell on the quarter-deck 
of the Englishman unsinged. 

That national emblem was all, save a spar 
or two, that remained of the "Randolph." 
Captain Biddle and three hundred and ten 
of her crew of three hundred and fifteen were 

44 



THE TERRIER AND THE MASTIFF 

blown to pieces and drowned. Four days later 
the "Yarmouth," cruising near the same place, 
discovered a piece of the wreck to which five 
men, more dead than alive, had managed to 
cling. 

The "Randolph" was lost, but the ''Yar- 
mouth" was so badly cut up that she could 
not follow the chase, and was obliged to lay 
to for repairs. What, if any, difference there 
might have been had the " Randolph" not been 
destroyed by explosion from within it is not 
easy to say ; but all authorities agree that the 
fight, while it lasted, was one of the most de- 
termined in history. Captain Biddle at the 
time of his death was but twenty-eight years 
old, and the infant navy and the colonies lost 
one of their most intrepid officers and gallant 
seamen. 



45 



DECATUR AND THE "PHIL- 
ADELPHIA" 

IT was on the deck of the ''Enterprise," be- 
fore Tripoli, in 1804. The crew had been 
called aft, and Decatur, smiling, stood on 
his quarter-deck. 

*'My men," said he, "the 'Philadelphia' is 
in the hands of the enemy. A few days from 
now and we may see American guns turned 
ao-ainst American sailors. The commodore 
has given us permission to sail in and blow 
her up. Will you go?" 

Into the air flew a hundred caps, and three 
wild American cheers were the answer. 

'T can't take you all," he explained; "the 
expedition is a dangerous one. We are going 
under the broadsides of the enemy, and I only 
want those of you who are ready. Now, lads, 
any of you who are willing to go, take one 
step aft." 

Without a second's pause the crew of the 

"Enterprise," to a man, stepped out; then, 

fearful lest others should get in the front rank, 

came towards the young commander in a body> 

elbowing and swearing at one another lustily. 

46 



DECATUR AND THE " PHILADELPHIA" 

Decatur smiled. With such a spirit there 
was nothing he might not accomplish. He 
picked out sixty-two of his youngest and 
steadiest men, each of them touching his tarry 
cap with a grateful '* Thank' ee, sir," as Decatur 
called his name. 

That afternoon they tumbled joyfully down 
into a captured ketch, which had been named 
the ''Intrepid," and, stores aboard, hoisted 
their three-cornered sail for the harbor of 
Tripoli. As they hauled off, Decatur went 
below to see that all his supplies and com- 
bustibles were stored, when Midshipman Law- 
rence came towards him somewhere from the 
depths of the fore-hold, pushing along by the 
scruff of the neck a youngster, who was crying 
bitterly. 

'' I found this stowaway, sir," said Lawrence, 
with a smile. 

"Please, sir," sobbed the boy, ''don't send 
me back. I want to see this 'ere fight, and I 
ain't going to do no harm. Don't send me 
back, sir." 

Decatur had looked up with a fierce frown, 
but the anxiety on the lad's face was pathetic, 
and he smiled in spite of himself. 

"You can go," he laughed, "but I'll put you 
in the brig — when we get back." 

On that six days' voyage to Tripoli the wind 

.47 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

blew a hurricane, and the masquerade of the 
American tars seemed likely to end in disas-, 
ter, without even a fight for their pains. But 
as they sighted the coast the sea went down, 
and the arrangements were completed. The 
yellow sails of the "Siren," their consort, hove 
again into sight, and by the afternoon of the 
1 6th of February the two vessels were bearing 
down upon the dark line that lay shimmering 
purple under the haze of the southern sky. 

The sun dropped down, a ball of fire, into 
the western sea, and by eight o'clock the 
towers of the bashaw's castle loomed dark 
against the amber of the moonlit sky. To the 
left the stately spars of the doomed frigate 
towered above the rigging in the harbor, and 
floating at her truck was the hated insignia of 
the enemy. 

The piping northern breeze bellied the crazy 
sail of the ketch and sent the green seas 
swashing under the high stern, speeding them 
good luck on their hazardous venture. Cata- 
lano, the pilot, stood at the helm, swinging the 
clumsy tiller to meet her as she swayed. By 
his side was a tall figure, a white burnoose 
about his shoulders and a fez set jauntily on 
his head — Decatur. Four others, in unspeak- 
able Tripolitan costumes, lounged about the 

deck or squatted cross-legged. But the delu- 

48 



DECATUR AND THE " PHILADELPHIA" 

sion went no further. For one of them, Reuben 
James, was puffing at a stubby black pipe, 
and another spat vigorously to leeward. The 
others were below, lying along the sides, 
sharpening their cutlasses. 

On they sped, Catalano heading her straight 
for the frigate. As the harbor narrowed and 
the black forts came nearer, they could see 
the dusky outlines of the sentries and the black 
muzzles that frowned on them from the battle- 
ments. Over towards the east faint glimmers 
showed where the town was, but the wind had 
now fallen low, and the lapping of the water 
along the sides alone awoke the silence. A 
single light shone from the forecastle of the 
frigate, where the anchor watch kept its quiet 
vigil. She swung at a long cable, a proud 
prisoner amid the score of watchful sentinels 
that encircled her. 

As placid as the scene about him, Decatur 
turned to the pilot and gave a low order. The 
helm was shifted and the tiny vessel pointed 
for the bowsprit of the ''Philadelphia." Nearer 
and nearer they came, until scarcely a cable's 
length separated them. They saw several 
turbaned heads, and an officer leaned over the 
rail, puffing lazily at a cigarette. He leisurely 
took the cigarette from his mouth, and his voice 
came across the quiet water of the harbor, — 

4 49 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

"Where do you come from ?" he hailed. 

Catalano, the pilot, answered him in the 
Hngua Franca of the East, — 

"The ketch ' Stella,' from Malta. We lost 
our anchors and cables in the gale, and would 
like to lie by during the night." 

The Tripolitan took another puff, and an 
ominous stir, quickly silenced, was heard down 
in the hold of the ketch. It seemed an eternity 
before the answer came, — 

"Your request is unusual, but I will grant 
it," said the Tripolitan, at last. "What ship 
is that in the offing?" 

The officer had seen the "Siren," which 
hovered outside the entrance of the harbor. 

"The British ship 'Transfer,'" said Cata- 
lano, promptly. 

The ketch was slowly drifting down until a 
grappling-iron could almost be thrown aboard. 
Right under the broadside she went, and a line 
of dark heads peered over the rail at her as 
she gradually approached the bow. 

The chains of the frigate were now almost 
in the grasp of Reuben James, on the fore- 
castle, when the wind failed and a cat's-paw 
caught the ketch aback. Down she drifted 
towards the terrible broadside. But at a sign 
from Decatur the eager Lawrence and James 
got into a small boat and carried a line to a 

50 



DECATUR AND THE " PHILADELPHIA" 

ring-bolt at the frigate's bow. A boat put out 
from the ''Philadelphia" at the same time. 
But Lawrence coolly took the hawser from the 
Tripolitan — "to save the gentleman trouble," 
he explained — and brought it aboard the *' In- 
trepid." A moment more, and the ketch was 
warping down under the ''Philadelphia's" 
quarter. It was a moment of dire peril. The 
slightest suspicion, and they would be blown 
to pieces. 

Decatur leaned lightly against the rail, but 
his hand grasped his cutlass under his robe so 
that the blood tinofled in his nails and his 
muscles were drawn and tense. Morris and 
Joseph Bainbridge stood at the rigging beside 
him, trembling like greyhounds in leash. 

Suddenly they swung around and shot out 
from under the shadow into a yellow patch of 
moonlight. The watchful eyes above the rail 
saw the anchor and cables and the white 
jackets of the sailors below decks as they 
strove to hide themselves in the shadows. 
One glance was enough. In an instant the 
ship resounded with the thrilling cry, "Ameri- 
cano ! Americano !" 

At the same moment the "Intrepid" ground 
up against the side of the frigate. In an in- 
stant, as if by magic, she was alive with men. 
Throwing off his disguise, and with a loud cry 

51 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

of '' Boarders, away !" Decatur sprang for the 
mizzen-chains . And now the hot blood of 
fighting leaped to their brains. The long agony 
of suspense was over. Lawrence and Laws 
sprang for the chain-plates and hauled them- 
selves up. Decatur's foot slipped, and Morris 
was the first on deck. Laws dashed at a 
port, pistols in hand. Nothing could with- 
stand the fury of the charge, and over the rail 
they swarmed, cutlasses in teeth, jumping over 
the nettings, and down on the heads of the 
Tripolitans below. Though Morris was first 
on deck, Decatur lunged in ahead of him, 
bringing down the Tripolitan officer before he 
could draw his sword. One of them aimed 
a pike at him, but he parried it deftly, and 
Morris cut the fellow down with a blow that 
laid his shoulder open from collar to elbow. 

Though surprised, the Tripolitans fought 
fiercely. They had won their title of ''the 
best hand-to-hand fighters in the world" in 
many a hard pirate battle in the Mediterra- 
nean. Around the masts they rallied, scimetars 
in hand, until they were cut or borne down by 
the fury of their opponents. 

After the first order, not a word was spoken 
and not a shot was fired. The Americans 
needed no orders. Over the quarter-deck 
they swept — irresistible, clearing it in a trice. 

52 



DECATUR AND THE " PHILADELPHIA" 

Overwhelmed by the fierce onslaught, the Tri- 
politans fled for life, the sailors driving them 
up on the forecastle and overboard in a mass, 
where their falling bodies sounded like the 
splash of a ricochet. 

So swift was the work that in ten minutes 
no Tripolitans were left on the deck of the 
frigate but the dead. Not a sailor had been 
killed. One man had been slashed across the 
forehead, but he grinned through the blood 
and fought the more fiercely. Then the 
watchers out on the ''Siren" saw a single 
rocket go high in the air, which was Deca- 
tur's signal that the " Philadelphia" was again 
an American vessel. 

In the meanwhile the combustibles were 
handed up from the ketch with incredible 
swiftness, and the work of destruction began. 
Midshipman Morris and his crew had fought 
their way below to the cock-pit and had set a 
fire there. But so swiftly did those above ac- 
complish their work that he and his men 
barely had time to escape. On reaching the 
upper deck, Decatur found the flames pouring 
from the port-holes on both sides and flaring 
up red and hungry to seize the tar-soaked 
shrouds. He gave the order to abandon, and 
over the sides they tumbled as quickly as they 
had come. Decatur was the last to leave the 

53 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

deck. All the men were over, and the ketch 
was drifting clear, while around him the flames 
were pouring, their hot breath overpowering 
him. But he made a jump for it and landed 
safely, amid the cheers of his men. 

Then the great oars were got out, eight on 
a side, and pulling them as only American 
sailor-men could or can, they swept out to- 
wards the *' Siren." 

The" Tripolitans ashore and on the gunboats 
had hastened to their guns, and now, as the 
ketch was plainly seen, their batteries belched 
forth a terrific storm of shot that flew across 
the water. The men bent their backs splen- 
didly to their work, jeering the while at the 
enemy as the balls whistled by their heads or 
sent the foam splashing over them. Out they 
went across the great crimson glare of the 
fire. It was magnificent. The flames swept 
up the shrouds with a roar, catching the wood- 
work of the tops and eating them as though 
they were tinder. She was ablaze from water 
to truck, and all the heavens were alight, — 
aglow at the splendid sacrifice. Then to the 
added roar of the batteries ashore came the 
response from the guns of the flaming ship, 
which, heated by the fierce flames, began to 
discharge themselves. But not all of them 
were fired so, for in a second al\ eyes were 

54 




THE DANGER OF THE "INTREPID" 



DECATUR AND THE " PHILADELPHIA" 

dazzled by a blazing light, and they saw the 
great hull suddenly burst open, with huge 
streaks of flame spurting from between the 
parting timbers. Then came a roar that made 
the earth and sea shudder. The fire had 
reached the magazine. 

The waves of it came out to the gallant 
crew, who, pausing in their work, gave one 
last proof of their contempt of danger. Rising 
to their feet, they gave three great American 
cheers that echoed back to the forts while their 
guns thundered fruitlessly on, 

Decatur and his men were safe under the 
''Siren's" guns. 

Is it any wonder that Congress gave De- 
catur a sword and made him a captain, or that 
Lord Nelson called this feat "the most daring 
act of any age" ? 



55 



THE BIGGEST LITTLE FIGHT 
IN NAVAL HISTORY 

IT should have been renown enough for one 
man to have performed what Nelson was 
pleased to call ''the most daring act of 
any age." But the capture of the " Philadel- 
phia" only whetted Decatur's appetite for 
further encounters. He was impetuous, bold 
even to rashness, and so dashing that to his 
men he was irresistible. But behind it all — 
a thing rare in a man of his peculiar calibre — 
there was the ability to consider judiciously 
and to plan carefully as well as daringly to 
execute. His fierce temper led him into many 
difficulties, but there was no cruelty behind it ; 
and the men who served with him, while they 
feared him, would have followed him into the 
jaws of death, for they loved him as they 
loved no other officer in the American ser- 
vice. Once while the frigate '' Essex," Cap- 
tain Bainbridge, lay in the harbor at Barce- 
lona, the officers of the American vessel suf- 
fered many petty indignities at the instance of 
the officers of the Spanish guardship. Having 
himself been subjected to a slight from the 



THE BIGGEST LITTLE FIGHT 

Spanish commander, Lieutenant Decatur took 
the bull by the horns. He bade his coxswain 
pull to the gangway of the Spaniard, and he 
went boldly aboard. His lips were set, for he 
had resolved upon his own responsibility to 
make an immediate precedent which would 
serve for all time. The Spanish commander, 
most fortunately, was absent. But Decatur 
none the less strode aft past the sentry to the 
gangway and, lifting his great voice so that it 
resounded from truck to keelson, he shouted, — 

''Tell your comandante that Lieutenant 
Stephen Decatur, of the 'Essex,' declares him 
to be a scoundrelly coward, and if Lieutenant 
Decatur meets him ashore he will cut his ears 
off" 

So among the men of the squadron De- 
catur came to be known as a man who brooked 
nothing and dared everything. 

But when the crusty Preble took command 
in the Mediterranean he was not over-Im- 
pressed with the under-officers of his com- 
mand. Not one of the lieutenants was over 
twenty-four and none of those higher in au- 
thority had turned thirty. Decatur and Somers 
were twenty-five ; Charles Stewart was only 
twenty-six, and Bainbridge the younger ; Mor- 
ris and Macdonough were barely out of their 
teens. 

57 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

It was not the custom of the commander- 
in-chief to mince his words. So sparing him- 
self the delicacy of secluding himself behind 
the saving bulkheads of the after-cabin he 
swore right roundly at his home government 
for sending him what he was pleased to call 
*' a parcel of d — school-boys." He was a 
martinet of the old style, and believed in the 
school of the fo'c's'le, and not in young gen- 
tlemen whose friends at home sent them in 
by the ports of the after-cabin. He held the 
youngsters aloof, and not until he had tried 
them in every conceivable fashion Vv^ould he 
consider them in his councils. A year had 
passed, and Decatur, Morris, Bainbridge, Mac- 
donough, and Somers had helped to add glo- 
rious pages to naval history, before the old 
man, with a smile to Colonel Lear, the consul, 
consented to say, — 

''Well, after all, colonel, they are very good 
school-boys !" 

Although Decatur's success in the destruc- 
tion of the ''Philadelphia" had removed a 
dangerous auxiliary battery from the harbor 
of Tripoli, the bashaw was far from overawed, 
and, with the officers and crew of the " Phila- 
delphia" as hostages, declined to consider any 
terms offered by the Americans ; and so it was 
resolved by Commodore Preble to make an 

58 



THE BIGGEST LITTLE FIGHT 

attempt upon the Tripolitan batteries and 
fleet. The Americans had the " Constitu- 
tion," — "Old Ironsides," — Commodore Preble, 
and six brigs and schooners mounting twelve 
and sixteen guns each. Preble had also suc- 
ceeded in borrowinof from ''the most gracious 
king of the Sicilies," who was then at war with 
the bashaw, two bomb-vessels and six sinele 
gunboats, — quite a formidable little force of a 
hundred and thirty-four guns and about a 
thousand men. 

It was not until the morning of the 3d of 
August, 1804, that the weather, which had 
been very stormy, moderated sufficiently to 
allow the squadron to approach the African 
coast. The gunboats were unwieldy craft, 
flat-bottomed, and, as the sea made clean 
breeches over them, they were a dozen times 
in danger of sinking. But by ten o'clock the 
sky to the southward had lightened, and the 
heavy storm-clouds were blowing away over- 
head to the westward. '' Old Ironsides" shook 
the reefs out of her topsails and, spreading her 
top-gallant-sails, she beat up for the entrance 
of the harbor of Tripoli with two of the gun- 
boats in tow. Her tall spars, seeming almost 
to pierce the low-rolling clouds, towered far 
above the little sticks of the '* Siren" and 
'* Nautilus," which bore down directly in her 

59 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

wake. The sea had lashed out its fury, and, 
before the little fleet had reached the reef, the 
gray had turned to green, and here and there 
a line of amber showed where the mid-day sun 
was stealing through. 

Stephen Decatur, on gunboat No. 4, had 
been given command of the left division of 
three gunboats. Casting off the tow-lines 
from his larger consorts, he got under weigh, 
and bore down for a rift between the reefs at 
the eastern entrance to the harbor, where the 
Tripolitan fleet, cleared for action, lay awaiting 
him. The wind was on his bow, and he was 
obliged to hold a course close to the wind in 
order to weather the point. 

The gunboat lumbered uncertainly in the 
cross-sea, for she had no longer the steady 
drag of the '' Constitution's" hawser to steady 
her. The seas came up under her flat bottom, 
and seemed to toss rather than swing her into 
the hollows. She was at best an unsteady 
gun-platform, and nice sail-trimming was an 
impossibility. But they got out their sweeps, 
and that steadied her somewhat. Great vol- 
umes of spray flew over the weather-bow as 
she soused her blunt nose into it, and the fair 
breeze sent it shimmering down to leeward. 

Decatur stood aft by the helmsman, watch- 
ing the quivering leeches, and keeping her 

60 



THE BIGGEST LITTLE FIGHT 

well up into the wind. Beside him stood his 
midshipmen, Thomas Macdonough — after- 
wards to win a great victory of his own — and 
Joseph Thorn. Both of them had smelt pow- 
der before, and Macdonough had been one of 
the first on the deck of the ill-fated " Philadel- 
phia." This was to be a different sort of a fight 
from any they had seen. It was to be man to 
man, where good play of cutlass and pike and 
youth and American grit might mean victory. 
Defeat meant annihilation. But youth is good 
at a game of life and death, and as they looked 
at Decatur there was never a moment's fear 
of the result. They leaned against the rail to 
leeward, looking past the foam boiling on the 
point to the spars of the African gunboats, 
and their eyes were alight with eagerness for 
battle. 

The men were bending steadily to their 
sweeps. Most of them were stripped to the 
waist, and Decatur looked along the line of 
sinewy arms and chests with a glow of pride 
and confidence. There was no wavering any- 
where in the row of glistening faces. But 
they all knew the kind of pirates they were 
going to meet, — reckless, treacherous devils, 
who loved blood as they loved Allah, — the 
best hand-to-hand fighters in the Mediterra- 
nean. 

6i 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

The ring- of the cutlasses, loose-settled in 
their hangers, against the butts of the board- 
ing-pistols was clear above the sound of the 
row-locks and the rush of the waters, while 
forward the catch of a song went up, and they 
bent to their work the more merrily. 

As they came under the lee of the Tripoli- 
tan shore and the sea went down, Decatur 
ordered the long iron six-pounder cast loose. 
They had provided solid shot for long range 
at the batteries, and these were now brought 
up and put conveniently on the fo'c's'le. But 
for the attack upon the vessels of the fleet 
they loaded first with a bag of a thousand 
musket-balls. At point-blank range Decatur 
judged that this would do tremendous execu- 
tion among the close-ranked mass of Tripoli- 
tans on the foreign vessels. His idea was not 
to respond to the fire of the enemy, which 
would soon begin, until close aboard, and then 
to go over the rail before they could recover 
from their confusion. He felt that if they did 
not make a wreck of him and batter up his 
sweeps he could get alongside. And once 
alongside, he knew that his men would give a 
good account of themselves. 

But as they came up towards the point the 

wind shifted, and the head of the gunboat 

payed off. Even with their work at the sweeps, 

62 - 



THE BIGGEST LITTLE FIGHT 

he now knew that it would be no easy matter 
for all the Americans to weather the point, for 
two of them were well down to leeward. But 
his brother, James Decatur, in gunboat No. 2, 
and Sailing-Master John Trippe, in gunboat 
No. 6, had kept well up to windward, and 
so he felt that he should be able to count 
on at least these two. As they reached the 
line of breakers, one of the gunboats to lee- 
ward, under Richard Somers, was obliged to 
go about, and in a moment the two others 
followed. Then the young commanders of 
the windward gunboats knew that if the at- 
tack was to be made they alone would have 
the glory of the first onslaught. 

What Decatur feared most was that Preble, 
on the " Constitution," would see how terribly 
they were overmatched and signal the recall. 
But as they reached the point, Decatur reso- 
lutely turned his back to the flagship, and, 
putting his helm up, set her nose boldly into 
the swash of the entrance and headed for the 
gray line of vessels, three times his number, 
which hauled up their anchors and came down, 
gallantly enough, to meet him. 

There was very little sound upon the gun- 
boat now. The wind being favorable, the 
Americans shipped their sweeps, and sat 
watching the largest of the Tripolitan vessels, 

63 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

which was bearing down upon them rapidly. 
They saw a puff of white smoke from her 
fo'c's'le, and heard the whistle of a shot, which, 
passing wide, ricochetted just abeam and 
buried itself beyond. Thorn stood forward, 
waiting for the order to fire his long gun. 
But Decatur gave no sign. He stood watch- 
ing the lift of the foresail, carefully noting the 
distance between the two vessels. Trippe 
and James Decatur had each picked out an 
adversary, and were bearing down as silently 
as he, in spite of the cannonade which now 
came from both the vessels and batteries of 
the Turks. The shots were splashing all 
around him, but nothing had been carried 
away, and the American jackies jeered cheer- 
fully at the wretched marksmanship. As the 
Tripolitans came nearer, the Americans could 
see the black mass of men along the rails and 
catch the glimmer of the yataghans. Then 
Decatur ordered his own men to seize their 
pikes and draw their pistols and cutlasses. 

At the word from Decatur, Thorn began 
training the fo'c's'le gun, which in the steadier 
sea would have a deadly effect. The distance 
was a matter of yards now, and a shot came 
ploughing alongside that threw spray all along 
the rail and nearly doused the match of the 
gunner of the fo'c's'le. But not until he could 

64 



\ 



THE BIGGEST LITTLE FIGHT 

see the whites of the eyes of his adversaries 
did Decatur give the order to fire. As the 
big gun was discharged point-blank into the 
thick of the crowded figures, Decatur shifted 
his helm quickly and lay aboard the Tripolitan. 
So tremendous had been the execution of the 
musket-balls, and so quickly had the manoeu- 
vre been executed, that almost before the Tri- 
politans were aware of it the Americans were 
upon them. The few shots from the Turkish 
small arms had gone wild, but a fierce strug- 
gle ensued before the Americans reached the 
deck. At last Decatur, followed by Thorn, 
Macdonough, and twenty-two seamen, gained 
the fo'c's'le in a body, and the Tripolitans re- 
treated aft. 

The Tripolitan boat was divided amidships 
by an open hatchway, and for a moment 
the opposing forces stopped to catch their 
breath, glaring at one another across the 
opening. Decatur did not pause long. Giving 
them a volley of pistol-bullets at close range, 
he dashed furiously down one gangway, while 
Macdonough and Thorn went down the other, 
and, with a cheer, cut down the remaining 
Turks or drove them overboard. A half- 
dozen went down a forward hatch, and these 
were made prisoners. 

It was a short fight, with an inconsiderable 

5 65 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

loss to Decatur, but the Tripolitan dead were 
strewn all over the decks, and the Turkish 
captain was pierced by fourteen bullets. The 
Tripolitan flag was hauled down, and, taking 
his prize in tow, Decatur put his men at the 
sweeps again, to move farther out of the reach 
of the batteries. 

By this time James Decatur and John 
Trippe had got into the thick of it. Follow- 
ing Stephen Decatur's example, they dashed 
boldly at the larger of the bashaw's vessels, 
and, reserving their fire for close range, they 
lay two of them aboard. John Trippe, Mid- 
shipman Henley, and nine seamen had gained 
the deck of their adversary, when the vessels 
drifted apart, and they were left alone on the 
deck of the enemy. But Trippe was the man 
for the emergency. So rapidly did they charge 
the Turks that their very audacity gave them 
the advantage, and Trippe finally succeeded 
in killing the Tripolitan commander by running 
him through with a boarding-pike. They fought 
with the energy of despair, and, although 
wounded and bleeding from a dozen sabre-cuts, 
struggled on until their gunboat got along- 
side and they were rescued by their comrades. 

But the story of the treachery of the Turk- 
ish captain and Stephen Decatur's revenge for 
the death of his brother makes even the won- 

66 



THE BIGGEST LITTLE FIGHT 

derful defensive battle of Trippe seem small 
by comparison. 

James Decatur, having got well up with one 
of the largest of the Tripolitan vessels, deliv- 
ered so quick and telling a fire with his long 
gun and musketry that the enemy immediately 
struck his colors. He hauled alongside and 
clambered up and over the side of the gunboat 
to take possession of her personally. As his 
head came up above the rail his men saw the 
Turkish commander rush forward and aim his 
boarding-pistol at the defenceless American. 
The bullet struck him fairly in the forehead, 
and Decatur, with barely a sound, sank back 
into his boat. 

In their horror at the treachery of the Tri- 
politan, the Americans allowed the boat to 
sheer off, and the Turk, getting out his sweeps, 
was soon speeding away toward the protec- 
tion of the batteries. 

Stephen Decatur, towing his prize to safety, 
had noted the gallant attack, and had seen the 
striking of the Turkish colors. But not until 
an American boat darted alongside of him did 
he hear the news of the treacherous manner 
of his brother's death. The shock of the in- 
formation for the moment appalled him, but in 
the place of his grief there arose so fierce a 

rage at the dastardly act that for a moment 

67 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

he was stricken dumb and senseless. His 
men sprang quickly when at last he thundered 
out his orders. Deftly casting off the tow-line 
of the prize, they hoisted all sail and jumped 
to their sweeps as though their lives depended 
on it. Macdonough's gun-crew were loading 
with solid shot this time, and, as soon as they 
got the range, a ball went screaming down 
towards the fleeing Tripolitan. The men at the 
sweeps needed little encouragement. They 
had heard the news, and they loved James 
Decatur as they worshipped his brother, who 
stood aft, his lips compressed, anxiously watch- 
ing the chase. The water boiled under the 
oar-blades as the clumsy hulk seemed to spring 
from one wave-crest to another. Again the 
long gun spoke, and the canister struck the 
water all about the Turkish vessel. The Tri- 
politans seemed disorganized, for their oars no 
lonpfer moved together and the blades were 
splashing wildly. Another solid shot went 
flying, and Decatur smiled as he saw the 
spray fly up under the enemy's counter. 
There would be no mercy for the Tripoli- 
tans that day. Nearer and nearer they came, 
until the Turks, seeing that further attemps at 
flight were useless, dropped their sweeps and 
prepared to receive the Americans. They 
shifted their helm so that their gun could bear, 

68 



THE BIGGEST LITTLE FIGHT 

and the shot that followed tore a great rent 
in Decatur's foresail. But the Americans 
heeded it little more than if it had been a 
puff of wind, and pausing only to deliver an- 
other deadly discharge of the musket-balls at 
point-blank range, Decatur swung in alongside 
under cover of the smoke. 

As the vessels grated together, Decatur 
jumped for the Tripolitan rigging, and, fol- 
lowed by his men, quickly gained the deck. 
Two Turks rushed at Decatur, aiming vicious 
blows with their scimetars ; but he parried them 
skilfully with his pike, looking around him 
fiercely the while for the captain. As he 
thought of his brother dying, or dead, he 
swore that no American should engage the 
Turkish commander but himself He had 
not long to wait. They espied each other at 
about the same moment, and brushing the in- 
tervening weapons aside, dashed upon each 
other furiously. 

Decatur was tall, and as active as a cat. 
His muscles were like steel, and his rage 
seemed to give him the strength of a dozen. 
But the Mussulman was a giant, the biggest 
man in the Tripolitan fleet, and a very demon 
in power and viciousness. So strong was he, 
that as Decatur lunged at him with his board- 
ing-pike he succeeded in wrenching it from 

69 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

the hand of the American, and so wonderfully 
quick that Decatur had hardly time to raise 
his cutlass to parry the return. He barely 
caught it ; but in doing so his weapon broke 
off short at the hilt. The next lunge he par- 
tially warded by stepping to one side ; but the 
pike of the Mussulman in passing cut an ugly 
wound in his arm and chest. Entirely de- 
fenceless, he now knew that his only chance 
was at close quarters, so he sprang in below 
the guard of the Turk and seized him around 
the waist, hoping to trip and stun him. But 
the Tripolitan tore the arms away as though 
he had been a stripling, and, seizing him by 
the throat, bore him by sheer weight to the 
deck, trying the while to draw a yataghan. 
The American crew, seeing things going badly 
with their young captain, fought in furiously, 
and in a moment the mass of Americans and 
Tripolitans were fighting in one desperate, 
struggling, smothering heap, above the pros- 
trate bodies of their captains, neither of whom 
could succeed in drawing a weapon. The Turk 
was the first to get his dagger loose, but the 
American's death-like grasp held his wrist like 
a vise, and kept him from striking the blow. 
Decatur saw another Turk just beside him 
raise his yataghan high above his head, and he 

felt that he was lost. But at this moment a 

70 



THE BIGGEST LITTLE FIGHT 

sailor, named Reuben James, who loved De- 
catur as though he were a brother, closed in 
quickly and caught on his own head the blow 
intended for Decatur. Both his arms had been 
disabled, but he asked nothing better than to 
lay down his life for his captain. 

In the meanwhile, without relinquishing his 
grip upon the Turk, Decatur succeeded in 
drawing a pistol from the breast of his shirt, 
and, pressing the muzzle near the heart of the 
Tripolitan, fired. As the muscles of his ad- 
versary relaxed, the American managed to get 
upon one knee, and so to his feet, stunned and 
bleeding, but still unsubdued. The Tripoli- 
tans, disheartened by the loss of their leader, 
broke ground before the force of the next 
attack and fled overboard or were cut down 
where they stood. 

The death of James Decatur was avenged. 

The other Tripolitan gunboats had scurried 
back to safety, so Decatur, with his two prizes, 
made his way out towards the flagship un- 
molested. His victory had cost him dearly. 
There was not a man who had not two or 
three wounds from the scimetars, and some 
of them had cuts all over the body. The decks 
were like a slaughter-pen and the scuppers 
were running blood. But the bodies of the 
Tripolitans were ruthlessly cast overboard to 

71 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

the sharks ; and by the time the Americans 
had reached the "Constitution" the decks had 
been scrubbed down and the wounded band- 
aged and roughly cared for by those of their 
comrades who had fared less badly. 

Decatur, by virtue of his exploit in destroy- 
ing the " Philadelphia," already a post-captain 
at the age of twenty-five, could expect no fur- 
ther immediate honors at the hands of the 
government ; but then, as ever afterwards, he 
craved nothing but a stanch ship and a gal- 
lant crew. The service he could do his coun- 
try was its own reward. 



72 



A DOUBLE ENCOUNTER 

THE old *• Constitution" was out on the 
broad ocean again ! And when the 
news went forth that she had suc- 
ceeded for the seventh time in running the 
blockade of the British squadrons, deep was 
the chagrin of the Admiralty. This Yankee 
frigate, still stanch and undefeated, had again 
and again proved herself superior to every- 
thing afloat that was British ; had shown her 
heels, under Hull's masterly seamanship, to a 
whole squadron during a chase that lasted 
three days ; and had under Hull, and then 
under Bainbridge, whipped both the *'Guer- 
riere" and the ''Java," two of their tidiest 
frigates, in an incredibly short time, with a 
trifling loss both in men and rigging. She 
was invincible ; and the title which she had 
gained before Tripoli, under Commodore 
Preble, when the Mussulman shot had hailed 
against her oaken timbers and dropped harm- 
lessly into the sea alongside, seemed more 
than ever to befit her. "Old Ironsides" was 
abroad again, overhauled from royal to locker, 
with a crew of picked seamen and a captain 

73 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

who had the confidence of the navy and the 
nation. 

Her hull had been made new, her canvas 
had come direct from the sail-lofts at Boston, 
and her spars were the stanchest that the 
American forests could afford. She carried 
thirty-one long 24-pounders and twenty short 
32-pounders, — fifty-one guns in all, throwing 
six hundred and forty-four pounds of actual 
weight of metal to a broadside. Her officers 
knew her sailing qualities, and she was bal- 
lasted to a nicety, bowling along in a top- 
gallant-stu'n-sail breeze at twelve knots an 
hour. 

The long list of her victories over their old- 
time foe had given her men a confidence in 
the ship and themselves that attained almost 
the measure of a faith ; and, had the occasion 
presented itself, they would have been as 
willing to match broadsides with a British 
seventy-four as with a frigate of equal metal 
with themselves. They were a fine, hearty 
lot, these jack-tars ; and, as '' Old Ironsides" 
left the green seas behind and ploughed her 
blufT nose boldly through the darker surges 
of the broad Atlantic, they vowed that the 
frigate's last action would not be her least. 
The ''Constitution" would not be dreaded by 
the British in vain. 

74 



A DOUBLE ENCOUNTER 

For dreaded she was among the officers of 
the British North Atlantic squadron. As soon 
as it was discovered by the British Admiralty 
that she had passed the blockade, instructions 
were at once given out and passed from ship 
to ship to the end that every vessel of what- 
ever class which spoke another on the high 
seas should report whether or not she had 
seen a vessel which looked like the " Consti- 
tution." By means of this ocean telegraphy 
they hoped to discover the course and inten- 
tion of the great American, and finally to suc- 
ceed in bringing her into action with a British 
fleet. By this time they had learned their 
lesson. Single frigates were given orders to 
avoid an encounter, while other frigates were 
directed to hunt for her in pairs ! 

Charles Stewart had been one of old Preble's 
"school-boy captains" before Tripoli, the second 
in command. He had been one to suggest 
the expedition to cut out or destroy the '' Phila- 
delphia," the envied command of which fell to 
Decatur. But he won distinction enough be- 
fore the batteries there, and afterwards when 
he captured the French '' Experiment," of a 
much heavier force and armament than his 
own, in a brilliant little action. He had en- 
tered the merchant service at thirteen, had 
been captain of a ship in the India trade at 

75 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

nineteen, and thus from his boyhood had been 
schooled in the finer points of rough-and-ready 
seamanship. 

He was born in Philadelphia, in 1778, at a 
time when the blood of patriotism ran hot in 
the veins of the mothers as well as of the fathers 
of the race, and he then imbibed the principles 
he afterwards stood for so valiantly on sea 
and on land. On the frigate ''United States," 
that "nursery of heroes," he had for mess- 
mates Stephen Decatur and Richard Somers ; 
and Edward Preble gave him ideas of discipline 
that later stood him in good stead. He was, 
like Decatur, of an impetuous disposition ; but 
he had learned what quick obedience meant to 
the service, and among the men on the "Con- 
stitution" it w^as known that infractions of 
duty would be quickly punished. The men 
tumbled quickly to the gear and handled the 
guns so smartly that with his picked seamen 
Stewart had not been out of sight of land a 
week before they attained a proficiency in 
manoeuvre rarely surpassed on a man-of-war. 
It is related that once, having received an 
order from a superior officer to sail with his 
ship immediately, Stewart got under weigh, 
towing behind him his mainmast, which he had 
not had the opportunity to step. 

Stewart was, of course, aware of the orders 

76 



A DOUBLE ENCOUNTER 

which had been issued by the Admiralty, but 
with his ship in fine condition and provisioned 
for a long cruise he feared nothing that floated, 
whether one ship or two. In fact, just before 
leaving his young wife in Boston he had asked 
her what he should bring her home. 

''A British frigate," said she, patriotically. 

''I will bring you two of them," he said, 
smiling. 

Stewart sailed to the southward, in the hope 
of falling in with some vessels in the India 
trade. For two months, in spite of their fit- 
ness, the men were daily exercised in all 
weathers at evolutions with the sails and great 
guns, and part of the day was given to cutlass- 
work and pistol-practice. No emergency drill 
was overlooked, and from reefing topsails to 
sending up spare spars or setting stu'n-sails 
they moved like the co-ordinated parts of a 
great machine. But one prize having been 
taken, however, Stewart set his course for the 
coast of Europe, to seek the lion, like Paul 
Jones, on his own cruising ground. 

On February i8, 1815, just two months after 
leaving Boston, the '' Constitution," being then 
near the Portuguese coast, sighted a large sail, 
and immediately squared away in pursuit. 
But hardly were they set on their new course 
before another sail hove up to leeward, and 

77 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

Stewart quickly made down for her. Over- 
hauling her shortly, she was discovered to be 
the British merchant ship ''Susan," which he 
seized as a prize and sent back to Boston. 
Meanwhile the other sail, which afterwards 
proved to be the ''Elizabeth," 74, had disap- 
peared. 

The following day the " Constitution" was 
holding a course to the southward from the 
coast of Spain toward Madeira. A group of 
her officers stood upon her quarter-deck, 
watching the scud flying to leeward. They 
were rather a discontented lot. They had 
been to sea two months, and beyond a few 
merchant prizes they had nothing to show for 
their cruise. It was not like the luck of " Old 
Ironsides." What they craved was action to 
put a confirmatory test to the metal they were 
so sure of. The fo'c's'le was grumbling, too ; 
and the men who had been in her when she 
fought the " Guerriere" and the "Java" could 
no longer in safety boast of the glory of those 
combats. 

Had they but known it, the "Elizabeth," 
74, and the "Tiber," 38, in command of Cap- 
tain Dacres, who had lost the "Guerriere," 
were but a few hours astern of them ; and the 
"Leander," 50, the "Newcastle," 50, and the 
"Acasta," 40, whom they had so skilfully 

78 



A DOUBLE ENCOUNTER 

eluded at Boston, were dashing along from the 
westward in pursuit. The seas to the east- 
ward, too, were swarming with other frigates 
(in couples), who were seeking her no less 
anxiously than she was seeking them. 

Stewart was not so easily disheartened as 
his officers. He knew that the ''Constitution" 
was in the very midst of the ships of the 
enemy. Had he not known it he would not 
have been there. He came on deck during 
the afternoon in a hio^h orood humor. He was a 
believer in presentiments, and said, jovially, — 

"The luck of the 'Constitution' isn't going 
to fail her this time, gentlemen. I assure you 
that before the sun rises and sets again you 
will be engaged in battle with the enemy, and 
it will not be with a single ship." 

The morning of the next day dawned thick 
and cloudy. Though well to the southward, 
the air was cold and damp. The wind was 
blowing sharply from the northeast, and the 
choppy seas sent their gray crests pettishly or 
angrily upward, where they split into foam and 
were carried down to mingle with the blur of 
the fog to leeward. Occasionally, in the wind- 
squalls, the rain pattered like hail against the 
bellying canvas and ran down into the lee- 
clews, where it was caught as it fell and 
whipped out into the sea beyond. 

79 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

Two or three officers paced the quarter- 
deck, looking now and then aloft or to wind- 
ward to see if the weather were clearing. 
Saving these, the fellows at the wheel, and the 
watch on deck, all hands were below on the 
gun-deck, polishing their arms or loitering in 
the warmth near the galley, where the cooks 
were preparing the mid-day meal. 

During the morning watch, Stewart, for 
some reason which he was unable to give, 
save an unaccountable impulse, changed the 
course and sent the ship down sixty miles to 
the southwest. Shortly after noon the fog fell 
lower, and so thinned out at the mast-head 
that the lookout on the topsail-yard could 
soon see along its upper surface. At about 
one o'clock the welcome sound of "Sail, ho !" 
came echoing down through the open hatch- 
ways. While ordinarily the sighting of a sail 
so near the coast has no great significance, 
Stewart's prediction of a battle had aroused 
the men to a fever of impatience ; and when 
they knew that a large sail, apparently a 
frigate, had been raised and that the fog was 
lifting, the watch below dropped their kits and 
tools and tumbled up on deck to have a 
glimpse of the stranger. Here and there 
wider rifts appeared in the fog-banks, and the 

midshipman of the watch, who climbed with a 

80 



A DOUBLE ENCOUNTER 

glass into the foretop, soon made her out to 
be a frigate bearing about two points on the 
port-bow. 

Stewart came up from below and immedi- 
ately crowded on top-gallant-sails and royals 
in pursuit. Before long the weather had 
cleared, so that they could make out the hori- 
zon to windward, and from the deck could 
dimly discern the hazy mass of the chase as 
she hung on the lee-bow, apparently motion- 
less. In less than an hour the man at the 
mast-head reported another sail ahead of the 
first one, and noted that signals were being 
exchanged between them. 

It was now almost a certainty that the vessels 
were those of the enemy. Forward the men 
were slapping one another on the back, and 
rough jokes and laughter resounded from the 
gun-deck, where the boys and stewards were 
clearing away the mess-dishes and stowing 
away all gear, in preparation for a possible 
action. On the quarter-deck wagers were 
freely offered on the character of the vessels, 
which looked to be frigates of 50 and 38. 
Stewart glanced aloft at the straining spars 
and smiled confidently. 

By this time the nearer frigate bore down 
within the range of the glasses, and they 
could see that she was painted with double 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

yellow lines, and apparently cut for fifty guns. 
As it afterwards appeared, she had a double 
gun-streak, false ports having been painted in 
her waist. Lieutenant Ballard, who had been 
carefully examining her with his glasses, re- 
marked to the captain, who stood at his elbow, 
that she must at least be a fifty-gun ship. 
Stewart, after a long look, suggested that she 
was too small to be a ship of that class. 
'' However," he continued, "be this as it may, 
you know I have promised you a fight before 
the setting of to-morrow's sun ; and if we do 
not take it, now that it is offered, we may not 
have another chance. We must flog them 
when we catch them, whether she has one 
gun-deck or two." 

Signals were now constantly interchanged 
between the vessels, and by three o'clock the 
"Constitution" had come so near that they 
were plainly made out to be two small frigates, 
or a frigate and a sloop-of-war, both close 
hauled on the starboard tack. The '' Consti- 
tution," having the windward gauge, now man- 
oeuvred more carefully, and, hauling her sheets 
fiat aft, pointed up so as to keep the advantage 
of position. 

As the vessels came nearer and an action 
became certain, the stewards came on deck 

with the grog-buckets, in accordance with the 

82 



A DOUBLE ENCOUNTER 

time-honored rule on men-of-war by which the 
liquor is served before a fight. Instructions 
had been given that, as the battle was to be 
with two ships, a double portion of the drink 
should be served. But just as the stewards 
were about to ladle it out an old quartermaster 
rolled down from forward, and saying, ''We 
don't want any 'Dutch courage' on tJiis ship," 
with a great kick sent the bucket and its con- 
tents flying into the scuppers. 

About four o'clock the westernmost ship 
signalled her consort and bore down to lee- 
ward to join her. The " Constitution" now 
set her stu'n-sails and went bearing down after 
them at a strain that seemed to menace her 
spars. She was rapidly drawing up with them 
when, just as she got well within range of the 
long guns, there was a sharp crack far aloft 
and the royal-mast snapped off at the cap. It 
was a doubtful moment, for the Englishmen 
crowded on all sail to escape, and rapidly 
drew together, flinging out their English en- 
signs as though in triumph. 

But they did not reckon on the superb sea- 
manship of the " Constitution." In a trice the 
men were aloft with their axes, the wreck was 
cleared away, new gear was rove, and in half 
an hour a new mast was aloft and another 
royal was spread to the breeze. 

83 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

But the ships had been enabled to close 
with each other, and Stewart had lost the op- 
portunity of attacking them separately. They 
made one ineffectual effort to get the weather- 
gauge, but, finding that the '* Constitution" 
outpointed them, they settled back in line of 
battle and cleared ship for action. Stewart 
immediately showed his colors and beat to 
quarters. 

The fog had blown away and the sun had 
set behind a lowering bank of clouds. The 
wind still blew briskly, but the '* Constitution" 
only pitched slightly, and offered a fairly steady 
platform for the guns, which were now trained 
upon the nearest vessel, but a few hundred 
yards broad off the port-bow. The darkness 
fell rapidly, and the moon came out from be- 
hind the fast-fiying cloud-bank and silvered the 
winter twilight, gleaming fitfully on the restless 
water, a soft reproach upon the bloody work 
that was to follow. 

At a few moments past six the long guns of 
the "Constitution's" port-battery opened fire, 
and the battle was on. Both ships responded 
quickly to the fire, and for fifteen minutes the 
firing was so rapid that there was not a second's 
pause between the reverberations. The Eng- 
lish crews cheered loudly. But the gunners 
of the ** Constitution" went on grimly with 

84 



A DOUBLE ENCOUNTER 

their work, sponging and loading as though at 
target-practice, content to hear the splintering 
of the timbers of the nearest vessel as the 
double-shotted thirty-twos went crashing into 
her. Before long the smoke became so thick 
that the gunners could not see their adversa- 
ries ; and Stewart, ordering the batteries to 
cease firing, drew ahead and ranged abeam 
of the foremost ship, with his port-battery re- 
loaded and double-shotted. He waited until 
he was well alongside before giving the order 
to fire, when he delivered such a terrible hail 
of round-shot, grape, and canister that the 
enemy staggered and halted like an animal 
mortally wounded. For the moment her bat- 
tery was entirely silenced, and during the lull 
they could hear the cries of the wounded as 
they were carried below to the cockpit. The 
English cheered no longer. Another such a 
broadside might have finished her ; but before 
Stewart could repeat it he saw that the other 
ship was lufifing up so as to take a raking 
position under the stern of the *' Constitution." 
Nowhere did the wonderful presence of 
mind of Stewart and the splendid seamanship 
of his crew show to better advantage than in 
the manoeuvre which followed. He quickly 
braced his main- and mizzen-topsails flat to the 
mast, let fiy all forward, and actually backed 

8s 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

down upon the other enemy, who, instead of 
being able to rake the *' Constitution," found 
her emerging from the smoke abreast his bows 
in a position to effectually rake him. The 
" Constitution's" guns by this time had all 
been reloaded, and a terrific fire swept fore 
and aft along the decks of the Englishman, 
tearing and splintering her decks and dis- 
mounting many of the guns of both batteries. 
So terrible was the blow that she faltered and 
fell off. Before she could recover from the 
first, another terrible broadside was poured 
into her. 

The other vessel now tried to luff up and 
rake the ''Constitution" from the bows. But 
the American filled away immediately and let 
them have her other broadside. Side by side 
the *' Constitution" and the larger ship sailed, 
firing individually and by battery as fast as 
they could sponge and load. Here and there 
a shot would strike within the stout bulwarks 
of the American ; and one of these tore into 
the waist, killing two men and smashing 
through a boat in which two tigers were 
chained. A sailor named John Lancey, of 
Cape Ann, was carried below horribly muti- 
lated. When the surgeon told him he only 
had a few moments to live, he said, "Yes, sir, 
I know it ; but I only want to know that the 

86 



A DOUBLE ENCOUNTER 

ship has struck." Soon after, when he heard 
the cheers at her surrender, he rose from his 
cot, and, waving the stump of his blood-stained 
arm in the air, gasped out three feeble cheers 
and fell back lifeless. 

Having silenced the larger vessel, Stewart 
immediately hurried to the smaller one, which 
had been firing through the smoke at the 
gun-flashes. The *' Constitution" fell off, and, 
gathering headway, succeeded in getting again 
across her stern, where she poured in two 
raking broadsides, which practically cut her 
rigging to pieces. Returning to the larger 
vessel, Stewart rounded to on her port-quarter 
and delivered broadside after broadside with 
such a telling effect that at 6.50 she struck her 
colors. 

The other vessel having in a measure re- 
fitted, came down gallantly but foolishly to 
the rescue of her consort. The '' Constitu- 
tion" met her with another broadside, which 
she tried to return, and then spread all sail to 
get away. But the American ship could out- 
sail as well as outpoint her, and under the 
continuous fire of the bow-chasers of the ''Con- 
stitution" she became practically helpless, and 
at about ten o'clock, when the dreaded broad- 
side was about to be put into play again, she 
surrendered. 

87 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

It was a wonderful battle. In a fight between 
one sailing-ship and two the odds were four- 
fold on the side of the majority. For it was 
deemed next to impossible to rake without 
being doubly raked in return. This obvious 
disadvantage was turned by Stewart to his 
own account by what critics throughout the 
world consider to be the finest manoeuvring 
ever known in an American ship in action. 
He fought both his broadsides alternately, and 
luffed, wore, or backed his great vessel as 
though she had been a pleasure-boat. Neither 
of his adversaries succeeded in delivering one 
telling raking broadside. She seemed to be 
playing with them, and skilfully presented her 
reloaded guns to each vessel as it attempted 
to get her at a disadvantage. 

The larger vessel was discovered to be the 
** Cyane," 32, Captain Gordon Falcon, and the 
smaller one the sloop-of-war ''Levant," 21, 
Captain George Douglass. The *' Constitu- 
tion" had fifty-one guns, while the Englishmen 
had fifty-three ; but of the '' Constitution's" crew 
four were killed and ten wounded. On the 
''Cyane" and ''Levant" thirty-five were killed 
and forty-two were wounded. 

After the battle, while the two English cap- 
tains were seated in Stewart's cabin dining 
with their victor, a discussion arose between 



A DOUBLE ENCOUNTER 

them in regard to the part each had borne in 
the battle, while Stewart listened composedly. 
Their words became warmer and warmer, and 
each accused the other in plain terms of having 
been responsible for the loss of the vessels. 
At a point when it seemed as though the bit- 
terness of their remarks bade fair to result in 
blows, Stewart arose and said, dryly, — 

'' Gentlemen, there is no use getting warm 
about it ; it would have been all the same, 
whatever you might have done. If you doubt 
that, I will put you all on board again, and we 
can try it over." 

The invitation was declined in silence. 

For this gallant action Congress awarded 
Stewart a sword and a gold medal, and " Old 
Ironsides" soon after the war was over was 
temporarily put out of commission. Her day 
of fighting was over. But years after, refitted 
and remodelled, she served her country in 
peace as gracefully as she had served it glori- 
ously in war. 



89 



THE "CONSTITUTION" AND 
THE "GUERRIERE" 

BY the exercise of remarkable seaman- 
ship Captain Hull had succeeded In 
escaping from the British squadron, 
under Broke, off the Jersey coast. But he 
came so near capture that the secretary of the 
navy succeeded In frightening himself and the 
whole Cabinet at Washington Into such a state 
of timidity that, had they had their way, no 
war-vessel flying the American flag would 
have been allowed to leave any Atlantic sea- 
port and put to sea. 

Captain Hull had carried the " Consti- 
tution" into Boston, where. If the orders had 
reached him In time, the secretary would have 
peremptorily bidden him to remain. But Hull 
was not in a humor to be inactive. What he 
wanted was a fight, yard-arm to yard-arm, with 
a frigate of the enemy, preferably the ''Guer- 
rlere," Captain Richard Dacres, who had 
sailed boldly up and down the coast with an 
open challenge to any frigate flying the Ameri- 
can flag. Though very warm personal friends 

ashore, both Hull and Dacres had high opinions 

90 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "GUERRIERE" 

of the merits of their own vessels. Dacres 
voiced the prevailing sentiment of the officers 
of his navy when he spoke of the '' Consti- 
tution" as a bunch of pine boards which the 
British would knock to pieces in twenty 
minutes. Hull said little ; but several months 
before war was declared had met Dacres, and 
wagered him a cocked hat on the result should 
the *' Constitution" and the " Guerriere" ever 
meet. With the timidity at home, neither 
he nor any American officers had much' en- 
couragement. There was no confidence in the 
navy at this period, and the insults they heard 
from abroad were not half so hard to bear as 
the thinly-veiled indifference they met at home. 
But Hull knew he had a good ship and a 
good crew. He had trained them himself, and 
he knew what they could do aloft and at the 
guns. Moreover, he knew what he could do 
himself. The navy was small, but the men 
who had smelt powder in the Revolution and 
before Tripoli were a stalwart set and had done 
deeds of gallantry that had set the greatest 
admirals of Europe by the ears. Many 
ingenious contrivances had been adopted, 
to be now tried for the first time. Sights 
had been put upon the guns, and the gun-cap- 
tains knew better how to shoot than ever be- 
fore. So, without waiting for the orders from 

91 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

the secretary which he knew would hold him 
in port indefinitely, Hull sailed on the first fair 
wind and uncompromisingly put out to sea. 
If the orders came, he wouldn't be back to 
obey unless he had captured a British frigate, 
or, at the very least, some merchant prizes. 
If he did not succeed, it meant that he might be 
hung or shot for sailing without orders. But 
even this sword of Damocles did not deter 
him. He would do his best, at any rate, and 
made a quiet seaman's petition to the God of 
winds and seas to send him the " Guerriere." 

Thinking to find a better opportunity to- 
wards Halifax, where many British men-of-war 
and merchantmen put in, Hull sailed to the 
northward, and cruised as far as the mouth 
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The frigate 
'' Spartan," 2^^, was in those waters ; but after 
watching for her for some days, he stood out 
to sea. On the 15th of August he sighted 
five vessels. The " Constitution" set all sail 
and rapidly came up with them. Four of 
them scattered, leaving the fifth, a brig, on fire. 
Hull made for the largest of the others, and 
found her to be an English merchantman 
in charge of an American prize-crew. The 
** Constitution" saved her from capture at the 
hands of the other vessels. Before night an- 
other vessel was overhauled, and she was found 

92 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "GUERRIERE" 

to be the American '' Adeline," in the hands of 
a prize-crew from the British " Avenger." One 
vessel was destroyed and the other was sent 
to Boston in charge of Midshipman Madison 
and five men, carrying the first suggestion of 
the brilliant news which was to follow. 

A few days later the " Constitution" chased 
and overhauled the American privateer " De- 
catur," which, believing her to be an English 
cruiser, had thrown overboard almost all of her 
guns. The captain of the privateer had good 
news, though. He had sighted an English 
frigate the day before, sailing southward un- 
der easy sail. Hull immediately set every- 
thing the " Constitution" could carry and gave 
the quartermasters a course which should en- 
able him to come up with her by the following 
day. 

The next morning dawned clear, but the 
breezes fell light, and not until the morning 
watch was there wind enough to send the 
American frigate bowling along on her course 
under top-gallant-sails and royals. Hull took 
the deck for awhile himself and sent lookouts 
to the fore- and main-royal-yards to keep 
a sharp lookout. With moderate luck they 
should catch up with her. And then Hull 
felt that he would make the " Constitution" 
the most talked about ship afloat or else he 

93 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

would change the timidity at the Navy Depart- 
ment into a panic for which there would be 
some reason. 

If the ship were the *' Guerriere," he 
promised himself a new hat. 

Not a sail hove in sight until towards two in 
the afternoon, when a lookout aloft shouted, in 
a voice that was taken up by four hundred 
throats on the spar- and gun-decks, — 

-Sail ho!" 

In a moment the watch below came rushing 
up. So great was the excitement that many 
of them went half-way to the tops, without 
orders or permission, to view the stranger. In 
an hour the stronger glasses proved her 
plainly to be a frigate, and the " Constitution" 
eased off her sheets, and with the bit in her 
teeth boomed steadily down for her. For an 
hour the two ships moved in this position, the 
stranger making no effort to escape and leav- 
ing her colors, which were soon made out to 
be British, flying in defiance. In fact, as soon 
as she discovered the '' Constitution" to be an 
American frigate she took in sail, laid her 
maintop- sail to the mast, and silently awaited 
the approach. Hull sailed on until within 
about three miles of the enemy, when he sent 
his light yards down, reefed his topsails, and 
cleared ship for action. 

94 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "GUERRIERE" 

An American-built frigate was for the first 
time to test her stanchness against a worthy 
representative of the mistress of the seas and 
''Terror of the World." Most of the crew 
had never been in close action before. The 
chase of the " Constitution" had tired their 
hearts less than their bodies, for the firing of 
the British squadron had been at a very long 
range, and there was never a time when their 
ship was in danger from the cannonading of 
the enemy. There was not a qualm or a fear 
to be seen on the faces either of grizzled sea- 
man or powder-boy, and they went to quarters 
with enthusiasm. 

But underlying it all there was a note of 
gravity. They were going to bring an Ameri- 
can ship into action with a frigate whose navy 
had scored hundreds of victories over the ves- 
sels of all the great nations of the earth. 
They half wondered at their audacity and that 
of their captain in defying a frigate so re- 
doubtable as the "Guerriere," for there 
seemed no further doubt that it was she. But 
they looked up at Hull, who was calmly pacing 
up and down the quarter-deck, taking a look 
now and then at the enemy through his glass, 
and their confidence came back to them. The 
excitement was intense, and one by one the 
men began throwing aside their shirts and 

95 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

drawing In the buckles of their cutlass-hang- 
ers, most of the gun-crews stripping them- 
selves to the waist and casting aside their 
shoes to avoid slipping on the decks when the 
blood began to flow. More than one of 
them had his own private score to settle with 
the British navy. Many of them had been at 
one time or another taken off American mer- 
chant-ships and impressed into the service of 
the enemy, and some of them still bore upon 
their backs the scars of the bloody lashes of 
the relentless '' Cat." The father of Captain 
Hull had died in the pest-ship ''Jersey," In 
the Revolution, and the other officers had all 
some grievances of their own which made them 
look eagerly forward to the battle which they 
Intended should mean victory or death. 

On the '' Guerriere" there was a feeling of 
unshaken confidence. That any calamity to 
their ship could be expected from an American- 
built vessel, manned by a crew collected hap- 
hazard among the merchant-ships of the At- 
lantic harbors, never for a moment occurred 
to them. When the drum beat to quarters, 
the men tumbled to their stations willingly 
enough, with no more trepidation than If they 
were going to target-practice. Captain Dacres 
summoned an American prisoner, the captain 
of the captured merchant-brig ''Betsy," and 

96 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "GUERRIERE" 

asked him what he thought of the vessel which 
was approaching. The skipper ventured that 
she was undoubtedly an American frigate. 
Captain Dacres replied with a smile, — 

" She comes down a shade too boldly for an 
American." And then added, '' Well, the better 
he behaves the more honor we will have in 
taking him." 

As the '' Constitution" bore down nearer, 
her ensign and jack flying proudly, there 
could no longer be any doubt as to her nation- 
ality and intentions, and he shouted to his crew, 
who stood at the guns, — 

" There, my men, is a Yankee frigate. In 
forty-five minutes she is certainly ours. Take 
her in fifteen, and I promise you four months' 
pay." 

Shortly after this Captain Hull was within 
two or three miles, and the ''Guerriere" opened 
fire on the " Constitution," to try the distance 
and get the range. 

The shots fell short, but Hull took in his 
light sails and came down more warily under 
topsails. The " Constitution" fired a broad- 
side, but these shots, too, dropped in the water 
between them. As he came nearer, the 
" Guerriere" squared away, wearing first to 
port and then to starboard, firing alternate 
broadsides and manoeuvring to avoid being 

7 97 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

raked. He wanted to cripple the American's 
rigging from a distance, if possible. But the 
shot all missed their mark, and the " Consti- 
tution" only replied with her bow-guns. Hull 
soon saw that this manoeuvring might last 
the day out without coming to close quarters, 
so he hoisted his top-gallant-sails and made 
straight for the enemy. 

Now the shot of the Englishman began 
coming aboard. Some of the standing rigging 
was cut away and the vessel was hulled several 
times. But the men, having carefully reloaded, 
stood silently at their guns, looking out through 
the ports at the " Guerriere," which, enveloped 
in smoke, kept up a continuous fire. They 
looked anxiously at the short, stout, sturdy fig- 
ure of Captain Hull, but he continued pacing 
the quarter-deck, making no sign that he was 
aware of the damage the shots were causing. 
In a moment the report of " Nobody hurt 
yet, sir," ceased suddenly. A shot struck the 
'' Constitution's" starboard bulwarks up for- 
ward and sent a jagged hail of splinters among 
the crew of two of the guns of the first divi- 
sion. Two men were killed outright and one 
or two more were wounded by this shot, and 
as their shipmates saw the men carried below 
to the cockpit they moved uneasily, and several 

of the gun-captains wished to fire. Lieutenant 

98 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "GUERRIERE" 

Morris now, with a view to quieting them, 
strode aft to the quarter-deck, where Hull was 
still calmly pacing up and down, and said, — 

" The enemy has killed two of our men. 
Shall we return it?" 

" Not yet, sir," replied the impenetrable 
Hull. 

Morris returned to his station. But there Is 
nothing more disorganizing to men than to be 
fired at and not have the opportunity of firing 
in return, and they besought Morris again to 
give the permission. Twice more the lieu- 
tenant went aft to the quarter-deck, and twice 
he got the same reply. Hull, like Paul Jones, 
believed in great broadsides at close quarters. 
This silence under galling fire was the greatest 
test of discipline an American crew had ever 
had. For in the heat of battle a man forgets 
to be afraid. That the men stood to it, speaks 
well for Hull's training. 

At last the " Constitution," which had been 
drawing closer and closer, drew up to a po- 
sition about forty yards off the '' Guerriere's" 
port-quarter, and Hull, waiting until his guns 
could all bear, stooped low, bursting his 
breeches from knee to waistband in the ex- 
citement of the moment, and gave vent to all 
the pent-up feelings of two hours in the hoarse 
order, — 

99 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

'' Now, boys, give it to them !" 

It was a well-directed broadside. 

The shots crashed along the line of bul- 
warks and sent showers of splinters flying 
over her spar-deck. The ships were so close 
together that the effect of those shots could be 
seen distinctly. Some of the splinters flew as 
high as the mizzen-top, and instantly the Eng- 
lish cheering ceased and the shrieks and cries 
of the wounded rang out between the concus- 
sions. Dacres now, for the first time, must 
have realized how great the honor would be if 
he took the " Constitution." 

Nor did the action promise any sign of being 
over in fifteen minutes. So well aimed were 
the American guns that in a short time the 
enemy's main-yard was shot away, and he was 
otherwise damaged severely both below and 
aloft. At a little after six a twenty-four pound 
shot went through the " Guerriere's" mizzen- 
mast, and, swaying a moment, over it fell to 
starboard, making a wreck and drag which im- 
peded the Englishman's manoeuvres. The 
seas pounded it against the sides of the ship 
and a hole was knocked under her stern, 
through which she began taking water badly. 
When the mizzen-mast fell, Hull threw ofl" his 
hat, and shouted, — 

*' Hurrah, boys, we've made a brig of her !" 

lOO 




IN THE TOPS OF THE "CONSTITUTION' 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "GUERRIERE" 

One of the seamen shouted back, — 
*' We'll make a sloop of her soon, sir !" 
And they did ; for in a little while the fore- 
mast followed by the board. The wreck trail- 
inof in the water astern acted as a rudder to 
the " Guerriere," and she swung across the 
wind. The " Constitution" forged ahead, and 
crossing her bows, poured in a raking broad- 
side. Then swinging round to port, she sent 
in another as effective as the first. The ships 
were very close together, and a fire from a 
burning gun-wad broke out in the cabin of the 
American ship. This was quickly put out, 
however, by Lieutenant Hoffman of the after- 
gun division. 

Both captains now decided to board, and the 
men were massed on the decks as they could 
be spared from the guns for the purpose. 
Dacres was on the point of sending his men 
across his bowsprit, but, finding the jackies 
of the " Constitution" ready to receive him, 
changed his mind. The sharpshooters in the 
tops of both vessels were firing into the black 
masses of men, and every shot told. Lieu- 
tenant Morris, on the " Constitution," while 
attempting to take a few turns of rope around 
the bowsprit of the "Guerriere," received a 
bullet through the body. William S. Bush, 
the first lieutenant of marines, while standing 

lOI 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

on the taffrail ready to board, was shot through 
the skull by a British marine, and instantly 
killed. John C. Alwyn, the sailing-master, at 
the same time received a ball through the 
shoulder. Captain Hull climbed up on the rail, 
when a Yankee seaman, putting his arms around 
him, dragged him down and out of danger. 

''Not with them swabs on," he said, point- 
ing to Hull's big bullion epaulettes. He would 
have been a certain mark for one of the sharp- 
shooters of the enemy. 

At about this time the flaof of the " Consti- 
tution," which had been nailed at the mizzen- 
truck, was shot down. But a young topman, 
named Hogan, shinned up the spar far aloft, 
and, though fired at repeatedly by the British 
marines, succeeded in replacing it amid the 
cheers of his companions. 

On the '' Guerriere" things were going badly. 
Captain Dacres had been shot in the back by 
one of the American marines, but he pluckily 
remained on deck. As the "Constitution" 
got clear again, both the mainmast and fore- 
mast of the '' Guerriere," which had been re- 
peatedly cut by American shot, went over with 
a crash, and she lay on the wave completely 
helpless. This was less than half an hour 
after the '' Constitution" sent in her terrible 
broadside. 

I02 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "GUERRIERE" 

The American ship drew off to a short dis- 
tance to repair her damages, and in less than 
an hour returned, and sent Lieutenant Read in 
a cutter to discover if Captain Dacres had 
surrendered. 

Dacres's humiHation was complete, and he 
felt that further battle would only be the 
butchery of his own brave fellows. 

Lieutenant Read hailed him to learn if he 
had surrendered. 

" I don't know that it would be prudent to 
continue the engagement any longer." 

'' Do I understand you to say that you have 
struck?" asked Read. 

** Not precisely ; but I don't know that it 
would be worth while to fight any longer." 

'*If you cannot decide," said the American, 
** I will return aboard my ship and resume the 
engagement." 

Dacres here called out hurriedly, — 

" I am pretty much hors de combat already. 
I have hardly men enough to work a single 
gun and my ship is in a sinking condition." 

*'I wish to know, sir," demanded Read per- 
emptorily, " whether I am to consider you as a 
prisoner of war or as an enemy. I have no 
time for further parley." 

Dacres paused, and then said, brokenly, *' I 

believe now there is no alternative. If I could 

103 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

fight longer I would with pleasure, but I — I 
must surrender." 

When Dacres went up the side of the 
'* Constitution" to surrender his sword he was 
treated in the manner befitting his rank by a 
generous enemy. Captain Hull assisted him 
to the deck, saying, anxiously, — 

'' Dacres, give me your hand ; I know you 
are hurt." And when the Englishman extended 
his sword, hilt forward, in formal surrender, 
Hull said, magnanimously, — 

'' No, no ; I will not have the sword of a 
man who knows so well how to use it. But" — 
and his eyes twinkled merrily — '' but I'll thank 
you for that hat." He had not forgotten the 
wager. If Dacres had. 

The transferring of prisoners was at once 
begun, for It was seen that the ** Guerriere" 
was a hopeless hulk, not fit to take to port. 
When this was all completed and every article 
of value taken from her, she was blown up, and 
the ''Constitution" sailed for Boston. 

She arrived at an opportune time. For 
Detroit had been surrendered without firing 
a shot In Its defence, and the American arms 
on the Canadian frontier had otherwise met 
with disastrous failure. The '* Constitution," 
gaily dressed In flags, came up the harbor amid 

the booming of cannon and the wildest of ex- 

104 



*' CONSTITUTION" AND "GUERRIERE" 

citement among the people. A banquet was 
given to the officers In Faneuil Hall, and from 
that time the American navy gained a prestige 
at home it has never since lost. Congrress 
voted a gold medal to Captain Hull, silver 
ones to the officers, and fifty thousand dollars 
as a bonus to the crew. 

The statistics of the fight are as follows : 
The "Constitution" had fifty-five guns, the 
" Guerriere" forty-nine, sending shot weighing 
approximately seven hundred and six hundred 
pounds respectively. The '' Constitution's" 
crew numbered four hundred and sixty-eight; 
that of the *' Guerriere" two hundred and 
sixty-three. The " Constitution" lost seven 
killed and seven wounded, and the " Guer- 
riere" fifteen killed and sixty-three wounded. 
All authorities acknowledge that, other things 
being equal, the discrepancy in metal and 
crews hardly explains the difference in the 
condition of the vessels at the end of the 
battle. 



loS 



THE "WASP" AND THE 
" FROLIC" 

THE American frigates " Constitution," 
"Constellation," and "United States" 
foueht and won o^reat battles where 
the metal and crews were equal or nearly 
equal, and proved beyond a doubt the ad- 
vantage of American seamanship and gunnery 
over the British in the Naval War of 1812. 
But it remained for the little sloop-of-war 
"Wasp," Captain Jacob Jones, to add the 
final evidence of Yankee superiority. Her 
action with the "Frolic" was fouo^ht under 
conditions so trying that it fairly ranks with 
the great frigate actions of our naval history. 

The '* Wasp" was only about one-sixth the 
size of the* '' Constitution." She was about 
as big as the three-masted schooners which 
ply in and out of our Atlantic seaports to-day, 
and only carried one hundred and forty men. 
What she lacked in size she made up in per- 
sonnel, and what she lacked in ordnance she 
made up in precision of fire. They must have 
been fine Jack tars and gallant fellows every 

one of them, for there was no chance for 

106 



THE ^' WASP" AND THE " FROLIC" 

skulkers in that fight. The vessel could not 
have been handled or the guns served as they 
were with one man less. 

It was off Albemarle Sound, in the rouo^h 
end of a Hatteras gale, with a gun-plat- 
form which now rolled the eun-muzzles into 
the spume and then sent them skyward half- 
way to the zenith. It is a wonder that the 
gunners could hit anything at all ; but almost 
every broadside told, and the hull of the 
" Frolic" was again and again riddled and 
raked fore and aft. 

When the war broke out the ''Wasp" was 
in European waters, carrying despatches for 
the government. She was immediately re- 
called, and in October, 1812, sailed from the 
Delaware to the southward and eastward to 
get in the track of the British merchantmen in 
the West India trade. On the 15th of Oc- 
tober she ran into a orale of wind off the 
capes of the Chesapeake, and lost her jib- 
boom and two men who were workinof on it at 
the time. For two days and nights the little 
vessel tumbled about under storm-sails, but 
Captain Jacob Jones was one of the best sea- 
men in the navy, and no further harm was 
done. On the night of the 17th the 
wind moderated somewhat, though the seas 

still ran high. At about half-past eleven a 

107 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

number of frigates were seen, and Captain 
Jones deeming it imprudent to bear down 
nearer until day should show him who the 
strangers were, sailed up to get the weather- 
gage and await the dawn. His forward rig- 
ging was disabled, and he had no wish to take 
chances with an enemy of greatly superior 
force. 

The dawn came up clear and cold, and, as 
the darkness lifted, the crew of the "Wasp" 
could make out six fine merchantmen under 
convoy of a big brig. The brig was about the 
same size as the *'Wasp," audit was seen that 
several of the merchantmen mounted from 
eleven to eighteen guns each. Nevertheless, 
Jones sent his topmen aloft, and in a trice he 
had his light yards on deck and his ship reefed 
down to fighting-canvas. The vessel was 
rolling her bows half under, but the guns were 
cast loose and the decks cleared for action. 
The brig, too, showed signs of animation. Her 
men went aloft at about the same time as 
those of the "Wasp," and soon she signalled 
her convoy to make all sail before the wind to 
escape. 

The sea was so high that it was eleven 
o'clock before the vessels came within range of 
each other. Then on the English vessel the 

Spanish flag was run up to the gaff But the 

108 



THE " WASP" AND THE " FROLIC" 

Americans nevertheless held on a course which 
would soon bring the ships together. There 
were enough Englishmen in those waters for 
Jones to take chances of her being one of the 
enemy. By half-past eleven the ships were 
within speaking-distance, — two or three hun- 
dred feet apart, — and Captain Jones mounted 
the mizzen-rigging, lifting his voice so that it 
might be heard above the shrieking of the 
wind and sea, and shouted through his trum- 
pet,— 

''What ship is that?" 

For answer the Spanish flag came down 
with a run, the British ensign was hoisted, and 
a broadside was fired. Just then a squall 
keeled the Englishman over to leeward, and the 
''Wasp" having the weather-gage, the shots 
whistled harmlessly overhead and through the 
rigging. The Yankee ship responded imme- 
diately. The gunners had been trained in all 
weathers to fire as their own vessel was about 
to roll downward on the wave towards their 
adversary. By this means the shots were 
more sure to go low in the enemy's hull and 
to have the additional chance of the ricochet 
which would strike a glancing blow. They 
waited a second or so for this opportunity, and 
then sent their broadside of nine shots crash- 
ing through the hull of the "Frolic." 

109 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

The tumbling of the vessel sent the guns 
rolling about, and the tacklemen needed all 
their strength and skill to hold the guns in for 
serving and out for firing. But they were in 
no hurry. They worked as slowly and as 
surely as possible, taking every advantage of 
the roll of the vessel, training and aiming de- 
liberately, and then firing at will. The Eng- 
lishmen sent in three broadsides to two of the 
Yankees. But they fired from the hollow on 
the upward roll of the vessel and most of their 
shots went high, scarcely one of them striking 
the hull of the "Wasp." 

It is a wonderful thing to think even of these 
two little vessels, tossed about like billets of 
wood, the playthings of the elements, fighting 
a battle to the death with each other, ignoring 
the roaring of the sea and the hissing of the 
water which now and again seemed to com- 
pletely engulf them in its foam. The waves 
came over the bows and waist of the *' Wasp," 
floodinor the decks, overturninor buckets and 
making division-tubs a superfluity. Sometimes 
it dashed in at the leeward ports, dipping 
the handles of the sponges and rammers, and 
even burying the muzzles of the guns, which 
the next moment would be pointing at the 
main-truck of their adversary. The powder- 
boys, wet to the waist, stumbled over the decks 

no 



THE "WASP" AND THE "FROLIC" 

with their powder-charges under their jackets, 
and, though buffeted about and knocked down 
repeatedly, kept the men at the guns plenti- 
fully supplied with ammunition. 

Although the British were firing rapidly and 
the shots were flying high, they began doing 
great damage in the rigging of the American. 
A few minutes after the battle was begun a 
shot from the ''Frolic" struck the maintop- 
mast of the "Wasp" just above the cap, and 
it fell forward across the fore-braces, rendering 
the head-yards unmanageable for the rest of 
the action. A few minutes later other shots 
struck the mizzen-top-gallant-mast and the 
gaff, and soon almost every brace was shot 
away. The "Frolic" had been hulled re- 
peatedly, but aloft had only lost her gaff and 
head-braces. In a quiet sea it would have 
been bad enough to lose the use of the sails, 
but in a gale of wind manoeuvring became 
practically impossible. The wind was blowing 
fiercely so both vessels drove on before it, 
keeping up the cannonading whenever a gun 
would bear, and pouring in from the tops a fire 
of musketry upon the officers and men upon 
the decks. 

The *'Wasp," having squared forward by 

the dropping of her maintop-mast across the 

fore-braces, no longer sailed on the wind, and 

III 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

in a moment drew forward, gradually ap- 
proaching across the bows of the '* Frolic," 
which, having lost the use of her head-sails, 
could not sheer off. Captain Jones was quick 
to see his advantage, and ran the enemy's bow- 
sprit between the main- and mizzen-masts of 
the " Wasp." The vessels now began striking 
and grinding against each other furiously, as 
though by a test of the stanchness of their 
timbers to settle the battle between them. 
The men who were loading two of the port 
broadside guns of the *' Wasp" struck the 
bow of the ''Frolic" with their rammers and 
found themselves looking Into the forward 
ports of the enemy. The guns were loaded 
with grape, and after the ships crashed together 
were fired directly through those forward ports 
of the " Frolic," raking her from stem to stern 
in a frightful manner. 

The next wave tore the ships apart, and the 
"Wasp" forged ahead, the bowsprit of the 
Englishman catching in the mizzen-shrouds, 
where Lieutenant James Biddle and a party 
of officers and seamen were awaiting the order 
to board. In this position the bowsprit of the 
" Frolic" was pounding terribly upon the poop 
of the " Wasp." At every send of the waves 
the bows of the Englishman would fall as the 
stern of the American rose, and it seemed as 

112 



THE "WASP" AND THE "FROLIC" 

though both ships would be torn to pieces. 
The men of the '' Wasp" had wished to board, 
the moment the ships had come together, and 
crowded along the hammock-nettings hardly 
to be restrained. But Captain Jones, knowing 
the advantage of his raking position, wanted 
to send in another broadside. He called the 
nen back to the guns, but they were too in- 
tent upon their object. One brawny fellow, 
named Jack Lang, who had been impressed 
into the British service, made a spring, and 
catching a piece of gear, swung himself up on 
the bowsprit and clambered down alone, his 
cutlass in his teeth, to the enemy's deck. The 
''Wasp's" men cheered vigorously, and, leaving 
their guns, rushed aft to follow him. Captain 
Jones, seeing that they would not be denied, 
then gave the order to Lieutenant Biddle to 
board. 

Biddle, cutlass in hand, jumped upon the 
nettings to lead the men. Midshipman Yorick 
Baker, being too small to clamber up alone, 
and seeing Biddle's coat-tails flapping in the 
wind, seized hold of them, one in each hand. 
He did not want to be left behind, and thought 
he might trust to the impetuosity of his su- 
perior officer to land him successfully among 
the first on the deck of the enemy. But just 

then a terrific lurch threw Biddle off his bal- 
8 113 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

ance, and they both came violently to the deck. 
They were up again in a second, however, and 
with Lieutenant George W. Rogers and a 
party of seamen finally reached the bowsprit 
of the '' FroHc." 

Upon the fo'c's'le of the enemy stood 
Jack Lang, swinging to the motion of the 
brig, his cutlass at his side, looking aft at a 
scene of carnage that was hardly imaginable. 
All the fierceness had died out of him, for he 
looked around at Biddle and grinned broadly. 
The decks were covered with the dead and 
dying, who tossed about in the wash of bloody 
water with every heave of the ship. The 
decks, masts, bulwarks, and rails were torn 
to ribbons, huge jagged splinters projecting 
everywhere. Guns, tubs, sponges, rammers, 
and solid shot were adrift, pounding from one 
side of the wreck to the other. No one 
moved to secure them, for only half a dozen men 
stood upright. At the wheel an old quarter- 
master, badly wounded, swung grimly, ready to 
die at his post. Behind him an English lieu- 
tenant, bleeding from ghastly wounds, clutched 
at a stanchion for support. Two other ofificers 
stood near, and one or two jackies glared for- 
ward at the Americans. There was no sign 
of resistance, and the wave of pity which came 

over Biddle and his officers swept away all 

114 



THE " WASP" AND THE " FROLIC" 

desire for battle. The British flag was still 
flying. No one seemed to have the strength 
to haul it down ; so Biddle went aft and lowered 
it to the deck. In a few moments the masts 
fell, and she lay a useless hulk wallowing upon 
the waves, which, more sure of their prey, 
dashed against her torn sides, widening the 
gashes made by her indomitable enemy, and 
at times making clean breaches over her bul- 
warks, tearing loose her boats and otherwise 
completing her destruction. 

Under the conditions, it seemed hardly 
credible that such injury could have been 
inflicted in so short a time, for the battle had 
lasted only forty-three minutes. The *' Frolic" 
had twenty-two guns, while the " Wasp" had 
only eighteen. The crew of the " Frolic" was 
less than of the " Wasp," the best authorities 
estimating it at one hundred and ten, against 
one hundred and thirty-eight of the '' Wasp." 
But even here the great loss and damage to 
the " Frolic" can be explained in no way save 
that the Americans were superior gunners and 
seamen. The *'Wasp" lost Ave killed and 
five wounded, and these men were most of 
them shot while aloft trying to refit gear. The 
" Frolic" lost fifteen killed and forty-seven 
wounded, making a total of sixty-two against 
ten of the ''Wasp." 

115 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

But Jacob Jones's victory was not to prove 
profitable, save in the great moral influence it 
exercised in England and America. He placed 
a crew upon the prize, and, having cleared away 
his wreck and refitted his rigging, tried to make 
sail away after the fleet, of merchantmen, which 
by this time were nearly hull down on the 
horizon. But a great British seventy-four, the 
'' Poictiers," hove in sight, and before Jones 
could get away he found himself under her 
guns a prisoner. Captain Beresford, of the 
line-of-battle ship, took the sloop-of-war to 
Bermuda, and there a garbled report of the 
action between Captain Whinyate's and Cap- 
tain Jones's vessels was written. But the 
American captain and his gallant crew were 
soon exchanged, and returned home, where 
their victory had been given its true value. 
They received twenty-five thousand dollars 
from Congress as prize-money, and a gold 
medal was given to Captain Jones and a silver 
one to each of the officers. The legislature 
of Pennsylvania gave Lieutenant Biddle a 
sword for his gallantry. 



Ii6 



THE "CONSTITUTION" AND 
THE "JAVA" 

AT the beginning of the war of 1812 there 
/ \ were but three first-class frigates in 
our navy, and but five vessels of any 
description were fit to go to sea. But the 
war with Tripoli and the gallant deeds of the 
American officers had made the service popu- 
lar with the public. In March, 181 2, an act 
was passed which appropriated money to put 
all these vessels in condition to meet the 
enemy on a more equal footing, and a naval 
committee was formed to deal with the emer- 
gency. Langdon Cheves was appointed chair- 
man, and he took hold of the great task of 
rebuilding and regenerating the naval service 
with enthusiasm and good judgment. The 
result was that the committee expressed the 
opinion '' that it was the true policy of the 
United States to build up a navy establish- 
ment, as the cheapest, the safest, and the best 
protection to their sea-coast and to their com- 
merce, and that such an establishment was 
inseparably connected with the future pros- 
perity, safety, and glory of the country.'* 

117 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

When war was declared, the '' Constitution" 
was in good condition, but the " Chesapeake" 
and the " Constellation" were not seaworthy. 
These were recommended to be immediately 
put in condition, and ten other frigates, aver- 
aging thirty-eight guns each, to be built. There 
was no difficulty in raising the crews for these 
vessels. Owing to the impressment of Ameri- 
can and other seamen into the British service, 
the Cross of St. George had come to be so 
hated by the fishermen, coastwise sailors, and 
merchantmen that they sailed, drove, or walked 
to Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the other places 
where the frigates were fitting out, eager to 
sign the articles which made them American 
men-o'war's-men. They were not drafted into 
the service like many of the British Jackies, at 
the point of the pistol, but came because they 
wanted to, and because with the building up 
of a new navy there came a chance to see the 
flag they hated trailed in defeat. That and 
nothing else was the reason for the wonderful 
success of American arms upon the sea during 
the war of 1812. The American officers, 
smarting under past indignities to the service 
and to themselves, went into the many actions 
with determination and enthusiasm, combined 
with the experience of a rough-and-tumble sea, 

— experience which with anything like an equal 

118 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "JAVA" 

force meant either victory or absolute destruc- 
tion. 

The ''Constitution," under Hull, had es- 
caped from the British squadron, under Broke, 
off the Jersey coast, had defeated the frigate 
*' Guerriere," and in all her history had shown 
herself to be a lucky ship. William Bain- 
bridge had been given the command of the 
" Constellation," but, arriving at Boston, Hull 
had found it necessary to give up his com- 
mand, and Bainbridge immediately applied for 
" Old Ironsides." 

The victories of the American frigates 
" Constitution" and " United States" over the 
British " Guerriere" and "Macedonian" had 
aroused great enthusiasm throughout the 
country, and the government had decided to 
change its timorous policy. Hoping to draw 
some of the British vessels away from the 
coast and cause them to be distributed over 
a wider horizon, expeditions were arranged 
to strike the enemy at many distant points. 
Bainbridge' s orders were to sail for the Indian 
Ocean and capture or destroy as many Eng- 
lish merchant-vessels as possible. His squad- 
ron, besides the '* Constitution," 44, consisted 
of the "Essex," 32, Captain David Porter, 
and the "Hornet," 18, Master-Commandant 

James Lawrence. Bainbridge and Lawrence 

119 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

put to sea from Boston on the 26th of Octo- 
ber, while Porter left the Delaware on the 24th 
to rendezvous at Porto Praya, on the South 
American coast. 

A few days later, H. M. S. "Java," a thirty- 
eight-gun frigate, Captain Henry Lambert, 
having two merchant - ships under convoy, 
sailed from Portsmouth, England, for India. 
She also had as passengers the newly-ap- 
pointed governor of India, Lieutenant-General 
Thomas Hislop, and many naval and army offi- 
cers, who were being carried out to their posts. 

The "Constitution," arriving at Porto Praya, 
and failing to find Porter in the " Essex," put 
to sea again, stopping at Fernando de No- 
ronha in the hope of meeting her there. Law- 
rence, in the " Hornet," challenged the Brit- 
ish sloop-of-war " Bonne Citoyenne" to single 
combat ; but her commander declined, in view 
of the presence of the " Constitution." Bain- 
bridge wrote that he would not interfere, and 
pledged him his honor to give the Englishman 
the opportunity to fight the '' Hornet" to the 
death. Hoping to bring the action about, 
Bainbridge sailed away, and remained four 
days. But. the British captain was determined 
not to fight, and Lawrence was th'us denied the 
opportunity he afterwards had with the ill-fated 

" Chesapeake." 

120 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "JAVA" 

Near the end of December, 1812, the " Con- 
stitution" was cruising off the coast of Brazil, 
about thirty miles from Bahia. The wind was 
light from the northeast, and Bainbridge was 
moving under short sail. "Old Ironsides," a 
ready sailer when in condition, had been off 
the stocks so long and was so befouled by her 
stay in tropical waters that she moved rather 
sluggishly, and had not the capacity for leg- 
ging it that she had when Hull had carried 
her from under the guns of the British squad- 
ron. Her sails were patched and her rigging 
was old, but Bainbridge had done all he could 
with her, and his men were full of confidence. 
She was the " Constitution," and that was 
enough for them. They only wanted an 
opportunity to repeat or surpass some of her 
previous exploits. 

They had not long to wait. At nine o'clock 
on the morning of December 29, the man at 
the fore-crosstrees passed the cry of '' Sail-ho," 
and soon from the deck Wo sails could be 
seen to the north, near the coast. They were 
both made out to be full-rigged ships, one 
standing in cautiously for the land and the 
other keeping a course out to sea, pushing 
down gallantly under a full press of canvas. 
The one Inshore was the American ship " Wil- 
liam," which had been captured by the British, 

121 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

and the other was the '' Java." The jackies 
who Hned the nettings of the '' Constitution" 
soon discovered that their wishes were to be 
granted, for the larger ship was evidently de- 
termined to come up, and could be nothing 
but a man-of-war looking for a fight. 

By about eleven Captain Bainbridge took 
in his royals and went about on the other tack. 
The Englishman was coming nearer now, and 
hoisted the private signals, English, Spanish, 
and Portuguese, in succession. Bainbridge 
hoisted the private signal of the day, and find- 
ing that it was not answered, cleared ship for 
action immediately. Then, wishing to draw 
his enemy from his consort, he set his mainsails 
and royals and stood out to sea. The " Java" 
came up rapidly, and made sail in a parallel 
course. Finding that the other ship did not 
follow, and desiring to make the other vessel 
disclose her identity, Bainbridge showed his 
colors, — his broad pennant at the main, the 
Stars and Stripes at the peak, another at the 
maintop-gallant-mast, and the American jack 
at the fore. This was shortly followed by his 
adversary, who hoisted an English ensign and 
displayed a private signal. 

All this time the "Java" was rapidly gain- 
ing on the " Constitution," and Bainbridge, 
finding that he was outsailed, took in his 

J 22 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "JAVA" 

royals and went about on the other tack, so as 
to pass within pistol-shot of the other. 

The " Constitution," still a mile to leeward, 
soon fired a shot across the ''Java's" bows to 
induce her to show her colors, which she had 
hauled down again. This had the desired 
effect, for the bits of bunting went up with a 
run, and a whole broadside was fired at the 
" Constitution." But the range was too great 
for successful marksmanship, both these shots 
and those fired by the '* Constitution" in re- 
turn dropping harmlessly alongside. 

By a little after two o'clock the frigates were 
within half a mile of each other, and the action 
then began with great spirit. The English- 
man got the range first, and sent in a broad- 
side which hulled the " Constitution" and 
killed and wounded several of her men. It 
soon became evident to Bainbridge that Cap- 
tain Lambert's guns carried better than his 
own, so began luffing up repeatedly in order 
to shorten the distance for an effective broad- 
side. He was sure of his marksmanship if 
once his men got the range, for the same gun- 
captains were with him that had helped Hull 
to her great victory over the '' Guerriere." It 
was difficult to draw up, as the Englishman 
was forging ahead with the evident desire to 

sail close to the wind and keep the weather- 

123 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

gage at all hazards. The "Constitution" 
could only luff up at opportune moments, for 
Lambert's position was one which would ena- 
ble him to rake the " Constitution" from stem 
to stern if he luffed when the broadside was 
ready. But he edged up cautiously, and soon 
the vessels were but musket-shot apart. A 
continuous fire now began, and the wind being 
light, both vessels were soon so shrouded in 
smoke that only at intervals could the gunners 
make out their adversaries. Along they sailed, 
side by side, giving and receiving tremendous 
volleys. About this time a solid shot went 
crashing along the quarter-deck of the " Con- 
stitution" and, striking her wheel, smashed it 
to pieces. The gear had been rove below, 
however, and the ship throughout the remain- 
der of the battle was steered by means of 
tackles on the berth-deck. The captain's 
orders were shouted down through the after- 
hatch and repeated by a line of midshipmen to 
the men at the tackles. 

Bainbridge, in full uniform, stood by the 
weather-rigging at the time the disabling shot 
came aboard, and a small copper bolt drove 
through the upper part of his leg, inflicting a 
bad wound. But fearinor that if he left the deck 
his men might lose some of the ardor with 

which they were fighting, he would not go below 

124 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "JAVA" 

though frequently urged so to do. Instead of 
this he bound it up with his handkerchief, and 
remained at his post, his epaulettes a fair mark 
for the sharpshooters in the tops of the enemy. 
His men down in the waist of the " Constitu- 
tion" looked now and again at the imposing 
figure by the mizzen-mast, and bent to their 
work with a will, firing as rapidly as their guns 
could be loaded. The distance between the 
ships was now so short that all the smaller guns 
and carronades could be used, and a rapid and 
well-directed fire was kept up both upon the 
hull and the spars of their adversary. 

The ''Java," by her superior sailing quali- 
ties, was enabled to reach well forward on the 
''Constitution's" bow when she eased off her 
sheets to round down across the bows of the 
American and rake. But Bainbridge, in spite 
of the disadvantage of wrecked steering-gear, 
was too quick for her. He put his helm up, 
and wore around in the smoke, thus keeping 
his broadside presented. The Englishman at 
last succeeded in getting under the "Consti- 
tution's" stern and pouring in a broadside at 
close range. But, fortunately, comparatively 
little damage was done. The superiority of 
the gunnery of the Americans, save for a few 
of the Englishman's well-directed shots, had 
been from the first far superior to that of the 

125 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

Englishmen. The fire of the ''Java" was far 
less rapid and less careful than that of the 
" Constitution." Had the gunnery been equal, 
the story of the fight would have had a differ- 
ent ending. 

But the Americans labored under a great 
disadvantage, and Captain Bainbridge, deter- 
mined to close with the enemy at all hazards, 
put his hel,m down and headed directly for the 
enemy, thus exposing himself to a fore-and- 
aft fire, which might have been deadly. But 
for some reason the Englishman failed to 
avail himself of this opportunity, only one 
9-pounder being discharged. When near 
enough, the " Constitution" rounded to along- 
side and delivered her entire starboard broad- 
side, which crashed through the timbers of the 
"Java" and sent the splinters flying along the 
entire length of her bulwarks. The shrieks 
of the injured could be plainly heard in the 
lulls in the firing, and soon the bowsprit and 
jib-boom of the enemy were hanging down 
forward, where they lay, with the gear of the 
head-sails and booms in a terrible tangle. 
With this misfortune the "Java" lost her su- 
periority in sailing, and this was the turn in 
the action. Quickly availing himself of this 
advantage, Bainbridge again wore in the 

smoke before Captain Lambert could dis- 

126 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "JAVA" 

cover his intentions, and, getting under the 
''Java's" stern, poured in a rapid broadside, 
which swept the decks from one end to the 
other, kilHng and wounding a score of men. 
Then saiHng around, he reloaded, and fired 
another broadside from a diagonal position, 
which carried away the "Java's" foremast and 
otherwise wrecked her. • 

Captain Lambert, now finding his situation 
becoming desperate, determined to close with 
the ''Constitution" and board her. He tried 
to bear down on her, but the loss of his head- 
yards and the wreck on his forecastle made 
his vessel unwieldy, and only the stump of 
his bowsprit fouled the mizzen-chains of the 
American vessel. The American topmen and 
marines during this time were pouring a ter- 
rific fire of musketry into the mass of men who 
had gathered forward on the English vessel. 
An American marine, noting the epaulettes of 
Captain Lambert, took deliberate aim, and 
shot him through the breast. Lambert fell 
to the deck, and Lieutenant Chads assumed 
the command. The Englishmen, disheart- 
ened by the loss of their captain, still fought 
pluckily, though the wreck of the gear forward 
and the loss of their maintop-mast seriously 
impeded the handling of the guns. At each 

discharge their sails and gear caught fire, and 

127 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

at one time the "Java's" engaged broadside 
seemed a sheet of flame. At about four o'clock 
her mizzen-mast, the last remaining spar aloft, 
came down, and she swung on the waves en- 
tirely dismasted. It seemed impossible to con- 
tinue the action, as but half a dozen guns could 
be brought to bear. 

The ''Constitution," finding the enemy al- 
most silenced and practically at her mercy, 
drew off to repair damages and re-reeve her 
gear. Bainbridge had great confidence in the 
look of the "Constitution," as, to all outward 
appearances unharmed, she bore down again 
and placed herself in a position to send in 
another broadside. His surmise was correct, 
for the one flag which had remained aloft was 
hauled down before the firing could be re- 
sumed. 

Lieutenant George Porter, of the '' Consti- 
tution," was immediately sent aboard the Eng- 
lishman. As he reached the deck he found the 
conditions there even worse than had been 
imagined by those aboard the '' Constitution." 
Many of the broadside guns were overturned, 
and, though the wreck had been partially 
cleared away, the tangle of rigging was still 
such that the remaining guns were practically 
useless. The dead and wounded literally cov- 
ered the decks, and as the lieutenant went 

128 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "JAVA" 

aboard the dead were being dropped over- 
board. The loss of her masts made her roll 
heavily, and occasionally her broadside guns 
went under. Lambert was mortally wounded. 
Lieutenant Chads, too, was badly hurt. When 
he had assumed command, in spite of the fact 
that he knew his battle was hopeless, he had 
tried to refit to meet the American when she 
came down for the second time. He only 
struck his colors when he knew that further 
resistance meant murder for his own brave 
men. The ''Java" was a mere hulk, and the 
hulk was a sieve. 

Comparison of the injuries of the "Java" 
and " Constitution" is interesting. With the 
exception of her maintop-sail-yard, the '' Con- 
stitution" came out of the fight with every 
yard crossed and every spar in position. The 
injuries to her hull were trifling. The ''Java" 
had every stick, one after another, shot out of 
her until nothing was left but a few stumps. 
It might have been possible to have taken her 
into Bahia, but Bainbridge thought himself too 
far away from home ; and so, after the prison- 
ers and wounded had been removed to the 
" Constitution," a fuse was laid, and the 
American got under weigh. Not long after a 
great volume of smoke went up into the air, 

and a terrific explosion was heard as the last 
9 129 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

of the "Java" sunk beneath the Southern 
Ocean. 

When the *' Constitution" arrived at Bahia, 
Captain Lambert was carried up on the quar- 
ter-deck, and lay near where Bainbridge, still 
suffering acutely from his wounds, had been 
brought. Bainbridge was supported by two 
of his officers as he came over to Lambert's 
cot, for he was very weak from loss of blood. 
He carried in his hand the sword which the 
dying Englishman had been obliged to sur- 
render to him. Bainbridge put it down be- 
side him on his bed, saying, — 

''The sword of so brave a man should 
never be taken from him." 

The two noble enemies grasped hands, and 
tears shone in the eyes of both. A few days 
afterwards the Englishman was put on shore, 
where more comfortable quarters were pro- 
vided for him, but he failed rapidly, and died 
five days after. 

The news of the capture of the "Java" 
created consternation in England. The loss 
of the ''Guerriere" and the "Macedonian" 
were thought to have been ill-luck. But 
they now discovered an inkling of what they 
rightly learned before the war was over, — 
that the navy of the United States, small as 
it appeared, was a force which, man for 



"CONSTITUTION" AND "JAVA" 

man and gun for gun, could whip anything 
afloat. 

When Bainbridge arrived in Boston he and 
his officers were met by a large delegation of 
citizens, and many festivities and dinners were 
held and given in their honor. The old '' Con- 
stitution," rightly deserving the attention of 
the government, was put in dry-dock to be 
thoroughly overhauled. Of the five hundred 
merchantmen captured by Americans, she had 
taken more than her share, and of the three 
frigates captured she had taken two. 



131 



THE LAST OF THE "ESSEX" 

WHEN Captain David Porter in the 
"Essex" failed to meet Captain Bain- 
bridge in the '' Constitution" off the 
Brazilian coast, and learned that the latter had 
captured the "Java" and returned to the 
United States, he was free to make his own 
plans and choose his own cruising-ground. 

He captured an English vessel or so, but 
his ambition was to make a voyage which 
would result in the capture of as many vessels 
as could be manned from the '' Essex." He 
thought the matter over at length and then 
formulated a plan which few other men would 
have thought of. No large war-vessel of the 
American government had been in the South 
Pacific for some years, and now the English 
whalers and merchantmen pursued their trade 
unmolested, save by a few privateers which 
sailed haphazard in the waters along the coast. 
David Porter decided to round the Horn, thus 
cutting himself off from his nearest base of 
supplies, and live the best way he might off 
vessels captured from the enemy. 

He knew that he could not hope for a hos- 

132 



THE LAST OF THE "ESSEX" 

pitable reception at any port he visited, but if 
he could keep his magazine and store-rooms 
supplied, determined to capture or destroy 
every vessel flying the British flag in those 
waters. 

He started on his long voyage at the end 
of January, 1813, during the Southern summer 
season, when the gales and hurricanes in that 
region are at their fiercest. He had not been 
at sea very long before the scurvy broke out 
on the ship, and it was only by the most 
rigorous discipline and cleanliness that the 
disease was kept under control. By the mid- 
dle of February the "Essex" reached the 
Cape, and, the weather having been moderately 
free from squalls, they were congratulating 
themselves on avoiding the usual dangers of 
those waters when a storm came up which in 
a short time began to blow with hurricane 
force. Gale succeeded gale, followed by inter- 
vals of calm, but nothing terrifying occurred 
until towards the end of February, when a 
storm which exceeded all the others in its 
fierceness began to blow. They were near a 
barren country, and, even should they reach 
land, there was no possible chance of escaping 
the slow torture of death from hunger and 
thirst. Great gray waves, measuring hundreds 
of feet from crest to crest, swept them re- 

133 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

sistlessly on towards the menacing shore, which 
could be seen dimly through the driving spray 
frowning to leeward. Many of the waves 
broke clear over the little frigate, knocking in 
her ports, opening her timbers, battering her 
boats to pieces as they swung on the davits, 
and loosening her bowsprit and other spars so 
that they threatened at each movement to go 
by the board. The crew, weakened and dis- 
heartened by disease and the excess of labor, 
lost heart and considered the " Essex" a 
doomed ship. David Glascoe Farragut, then 
a midshipman aboard of her, afterwards wTote 
that never before had he seen good seamen so 
paralyzed by fear at the mere terrors of the 
sea. On the third day an enormous wave 
struck her fairly on the weather-bow and 
broadside, and she went over on her beam 
ends, burying her lee-bulwark in the foam. It 
looked for a moment as if she would never 
right herself The ports on the gun-deck were 
all stove in and she seemed to be filline with 
water. The head-rails were swept away, and 
one of the cutters was lifted bodily from the 
davits and smashed against the wheel. The 
fellows there stood bravely at their posts, 
though thoroughly terrified at the position of 
the ship. The water poured down below, and 
the men on the gun-deck thought she was 

134 



THE LAST OF THE "ESSEX" 

already plunging to the bottom. The grizzly 
boatswain, crazy with fear, cried out in his 
terror, — 

" The ship's broadside is stove in ! We are 
sinking !" 

That was the greatest of their dangers, 
though, and better days were in store for them. 
Early in March the "Essex" succeeded in 
reaching Mocha Island, and the men, starved 
on half and quarter rations, were sent ashore 
to hunt wild hogs and horses. These were 
shot in numbers and salted down for food. 
The crew soon regained their health and 
spirits, and Porter sailed away for Valparaiso, 
putting in there to refit his damaged rigging 
and spars. 

And now began a cruise which is numbered 
among the most successful in the country's 
history. Porter had been at sea but a few 
days when he overhauled a Peruvian privateer, 
the " Nereyda." To his surprise, twenty-four 
American sailors were found prisoners aboard 
of her. When asked to explain, the Peruvian 
captain replied that as his country was an ally 
of Great Britain, and that as war was soon to 
be declared between Spain and America, he 
thought he would anticipate matters and be 
sure of his prizes. Porter, in forcible English, 
explained the Peruvian's mistake, and, to make 

135 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

the matter more clear, threw all his guns and 
ammunition overboard, so that he might repent 
of his folly in a more diplomatic condition. 

The Peruvian captain begrudgingly gave 
Porter a list of all the English vessels in 
those waters. The first one captured was the 
whaler "Barclay." On the 29th of April the 
" Essex" took the '* Montezuma," with a cargo 
of fourteen hundred barrels of whale-oil. Later 
in the same day the ''Georgiana" and the 
''Policy" were overhauled. These prizes, with 
their cargoes, in England were worth half a 
million dollars ; but, better than money, they 
were plentifully supplied with ropes, spars, 
cordage, stores, and ammunition, of which 
Porter still stood badly in need. 

Finding that the ''Georgiana" was a fast 
sailer and pierced for eighteen guns. Porter 
decided to make use of her as a cruiser, and, 
fitting her up, placed Lieutenant Downes in 
command of her, with forty men for a crew. 
Then the " Essex" took the '' Atlantic" and the 
''Greenwich." With this very respectable 
squadron Porter sailed for the mainland, Lieu- 
tenant Downes in the " Georgiana" mean- 
while capturing without great difficulty the 
"Catharine" and the "Rose." A third vessel, 
the "Hector," fought viciously, but was event- 
ually secured after a stiff little battle. 

136 



THE LAST OF THE "ESSEX" 

Young Farragut had been made the prize- 
master of the " Barclay." He was only twelve 
years old, but Captain Porter, who was very 
fond of him, was confident of his ability to 
bring the ship into port. The English captain 
had been persuaded to act as navigator ; but 
once out of sight of the squadron he refused 
to sail for Valparaiso. He afterwards said it 
was merely to frighten the boy. But the boy 
did not frighten at all. Instead he called one 
of his best seamen to him and ordered sail 
made. Then he told the captain that if he 
did not go below and stay there he would 
have him thrown overboard. The Englishman 
retreated below precipitately, and Farragut 
brought the ship safely in, a first proof of the 
courage and skill he was to show in after-life. 
Few boys of twelve would have done it even 
in those days when midshipmen soon became 
men regardless of age. 

The ''Atlantic," being reckoned the fastest 
vessel of her kind afloat in those waters, 
was now given to Downes, who had been pro- 
moted to master-commandant, and renamed 
the ''Essex Junior." She was given twenty 
guns and sixty men, and soon proved her 
worth. All of this time Porter had been self- 
supporting. Neither he nor his squadron had 
cost his government a penny in money, and 

137 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

the prizes he captured, including the " Charl- 
ton," '' Seringapatam," *' New Zealand," and 
"Sir Andrew Hammond," could not be reck- 
oned much short of a million and a half ot 
dollars, a tremendous sum in those days, when 
the pay of a captain of a naval vessel was 
only twelve hundred dollars, — less than the 
pay of a boatswain to-day. 

But Porter grew tired of his easy victories 
over merchantmen and privateers. He had 
succeeded in frightening the ships of the 
British entirely from the ocean. His one ship, 
a small frigate, had complete control in the 
South Pacific, and the Admiralty wondered at 
the skill and ingenuity of a man who could 
manage his fleets so adroitly. They deter- 
mined to capture him ; and two smart ships, 
the '' Phoebe" and the '' Cherub," were sent 
out for this purpose. Porter heard of their 
coming, and was willing enough to meet them 
if it were possible. He went to Nukahiva, in 
the Marquesas Islands, to put the ''Essex" in 
thorough repair and give his men a rest. He 
remained there two months, sailing near the 
end of the year 1813 for Valparaiso, with the 
hope of their meeting the English cruisers. 

The " Essex" had been there but a month 
when the "Essex Junior," which was cruising 
in the offing in anticipation of the arrival of 

138 



THE LAST OF THE "ESSEX" 

the British ships, signalled, "Two enemy's ships 
in sight." Half the crew of the ''Essex" 
were ashore enjoying sailor-men's liberty. 
Even if they all got aboard, it was fair to 
assume that they would be in no condition to 
fight should the Englishmen choose to violate 
the neutrality of the port by firing on them. 
Porter immediately fired a gun and hoisted the 
recall signal for all boats and men to return. 
The English captain, Hillyar, ran the "Phoebe" 
on the wind straight for the "Essex," the 
** Cherub" following closely. But when they 
reached the anchorage, the " Essex" was ready 
for action and die crew were at their stations. 
The " Phoebe" went around under the quarter 
of the "Essex," luffing up scarcely fifteen feet 
away. It was an exciting moment. Hillyar 
could see the men at their guns, and his ardor 
was perceptibly diminished. Had he given 
the order to fire then, he would have been 
raked fore and aft, and the tale of this last 
fight of the " Essex" might have had a different 
ending. 

As it was, he jumped upon the nettings, and 
said, with distinguished politeness, — 

"Captain Hillyar's compliments to Captain 
Porter, and hopes he is well." 

Porter was well, but he was in no humor to 
bandy compliments. 

139 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

" Very well, I thank you," he replied ; '* but I 
hope you will not come too near, for fear some 
accident might take place which would be dis- 
agreeable to you." And at a wave of his 
hand the kedge-anchors and grappling-irons 
were swung up to the yard-arms, ready to be 
dropped on the decks of the enemy. The men 
swarmed along the nettings, ready to jump 
aboard the Englishman as soon as she was 
close enough. 

But Hillyar, not liking the looks of things, 
changed his tone considerably. He backed 
his yards hurriedly, and said in an excited man- 
ner, — 

"I had no intention of getting aboard of 
you. I assure you that if I fall aboard it will 
be entirely accidental." 

" Well," said Porter, " you have no business 
where you are. If you touch a rope-yarn of 
this ship I shall board instantly." 

Porter then hailed Downes on the '' Essex 
Junior" and told him to be prepared to repel 
the enemy. The vessels were in a position to 
be almost at the mercy of the Americans. 
When the '' Phoebe" ranged alongside, the 
crews could see each other through the ports, 
and laughed and made grimaces at one an- 
other. One young fellow in the " Essex," who 

had come aboard drunk, stood at one of the 

140 



THE LAST OF THE "ESSEX" 

guns, match in hand. He saw one of the 
English jackies grinning at him. He was 
primed for a fight, and yelled across, — 

*' I'll stop your making faces, my fine fel- 
low." He leaned forward to apply the match 
to the vent, and was only saved from firing it 
in time by Lieutenant McKnight of the gun- 
division, who knocked him sprawling. Had 
that gun been fired, the " Phoebe" would have 
been taken. 

There seems no doubt of Captain Hillyar's 
previous intention to try to take the "Essex" 
as she lay, regardless of the neutrality. Cap- 
tain Porter would have been justified if he 
had fired at that time. 

But the Englishmen were willing to bide 
their time. Two more British ships were ex- 
pected, and they felt sure of their prey. 

A strange state of affairs now ensued. The 

officers meeting on shore exchanged the proper 

courtesies, and strict orders were issued to the 

men, who for a wonder were restrained from 

fighting. Porter flew from his foremast a 

great white burgee, bearing the legend, " Free 

Trade and Sailors' Rights." Captain Hillyar 

soon hoisted one in reply, " God and Country : 

British Sailors' Best Rights. Traitors Offend 

Both." Porter then had another painted, and 

sent it to the mizzen, which read, "God, 

141 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

Our Country, and Liberty. Tyrants Offend 
Them." 

These amenities had the effect of making 
the crew eager for a speedy settlement of the 
question. Once Captain Hillyar fired a gun 
in challenge ; but upon Porter's accepting it, 
the Englishman sailed down to his consort the 
" Cherub," and Porter returned. The English- 
man, in spite of his challenge, was not willing 
to fight a single battle. 

Finally, Captain Porter, learning of the 
expected early arrival of the ''Tagus," 38, 
the "Raccoon," and two other ships, deter- 
mined to put to sea and there fight it out 
with the two frigates as best he might. The 
next day, the 28th of March, 1814, a squall 
came up, and the '' Essex" lost one of her 
anchors and dragged the other out to sea. 
Not a moment was to be lost in getting sail on 
the ship, for he saw a chance to sail between 
the southwest point of the harbor and the 
enemy. Under close-reefed topsails Porter 
made a course which seemed likely to carry 
him just where he wanted to go, when a 
heavy squall struck the ship, carrying away 
the maintop-mast and throwing the men who 
were aloft on the top-gallant-yard into the 
sea. 

This great misfortune at a time when there 

142 



THE LAST OF THE "ESSEX" 

was at least a fighting chance of getting away 
put a different aspect upon the chances of the 
" Essex." Both English vessels immediately 
gave chase, and Porter, failing to make his 
anchorage, ran for shore, to anchor there and 
fight it out to the last drop of blood. The 
*' Phoebe" and the "Cherub," bedecked with 
fiags, came booming down to where Porter 
awaited them, flying fiags from the stumps of 
his maintop-mast and at almost every point 
where he could run a halyard. 

At about four o'clock the " Phoebe" selected 
a position under the stern of the " Essex," and 
opened fire at long range. The "Cherub" 
stood off her bow. The fire of the " Phoebe" 
was terribly destructive, and few guns from 
the "Essex" could be brought to bear upon 
her. The "Cherub" fared differently; and, 
finding her position too hot, sailed around and 
took up a position by her consort, where a 
tremendous fire was poured in. Captain Por- 
ter, with great difficulty, had three of his long 
i2-pounders hauled into his after-cabin, and 
at last succeeded in opening such a fierce 
and well-aimed fire that the enemy wore about 
and increased the distance between them. 
The "Phoebe" had three holes in her water- 
line, had lost the use of her mainsail and jib, 
and had her fore-main- and mizzen-stays shot 

143 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

away. Her bowsprit was badly wounded, and 
she had other injuries below. 

But the ''Essex" was fighting against ter- 
rible odds. The springs on her cables were 
again and again shot away and the crew were 
being killed and wounded in great numbers. 
When the ships of the enemy returned and 
opened a galling fire fi'om such a position that 
it could not be returned by the " Essex," Por- 
ter determined to assume the aggressive. But 
when he attempted to make sail on his ship, he 
found that most of the running-gear had bees 
cut away, only his flying-jib could be spread to 
the winds. But, nothing daunted, he cut his 
cable, and, spreading his tattered canvases 
the best way he could, made down for the 
" Cherub" until within range of the cannon- 
ades, where he gave the Englishman such a 
drubbing that he took to his heels and got out 
of range altogether. The *' Phoebe" managed" 
to keep her distance, and with her long guns 
kept sending in broadside after broadside, 
which swept the decks of the doomed '' Essex" 
and mowed her men down like chaff. Captain 
Hillyar was taking no chances. 

The slaughter on the '' Essex" was horrible. 
One gun was manned by three crews, fifteen 
men being killed at it. Men were dying like 

sheep ; but those who remained at the guns, 

144 



THE LAST OF THE "ESSEX" 

and even the wounded, had no thought of sur- 
render. A sailor named BIssley, a young 
Scotchman by birth, lost his leg. He lifted 
himself, and said to some of his shipmates, — 

" I hope I have proved myself worthy of the 
country of my adoption. I am no longer of 
any use to you or her ; so good-by." And be- 
fore he could be restrained he pushed himself 
through the port into the sea and was drowned. 

Midshipman Farragut acted as captain's aid, 
quarter-gunner, powder-boy, and anything that 
i^was required of him. He went below for 
some primers, when the captain of a gun was 
struck full in the face by a sixteen-pound 
shot, falling back upon the midshipman, spat- 
tering him with blood and tumbling then both 
down the hatch together. The blow stunned 
the midshipman for a moment ; but when he 
recovered, he rushed again on deck. Captain 
•Porter, seeing him covered with blood, asked 
him if he were wounded. 

"I believe not, sir." 

''Then, where are the primers ?" 

This first brought him completely to his 
senses. He rushed below again and brought 
the primers up. Captain Porter fell, stunned 
by the windage of a shot, but got to his feet 
unaided. 

Though most other men would have sur- 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

rendered the ship, Porter made up his mind to 
run her towards the shore and beach her broad- 
side on, fight until the last and then blow her 
to pieces. An explosion occurred below and 
a fire broke out in two places. The decks 
were so covered with dead and dying that the 
men who remained upright could scarcely 
move among them. The cockpit would hold 
not another wounded man, and the shots which 
came in killed men who were under the sur- 
geon's knife. Out of the two hundred and fifty- 
five souls who began the fight only seventy- 
five, including officers and boys, remained on 
the ship fit for duty. Many of the men, think- 
ing the ship was about to blow up, had jumped 
overboard and had drowned or were struggling 
in the water in the attempt to swim to land. 
The long-range shots of the enemy were strik- 
ing her at every fire. The Englishmen had 
the distance accurately and were battering her 
to pieces as though at target-practice. 

Captain Porter, at last seeing that resistance 
was only a waste of life, called his officers into 
consultation. But one. Lieutenant McKnight, 
could respond, and at 6.20 p.m. the order was 
given to haul down the flag. 

When the British boarding-officer came over 
the side, the sight of the carnage was so shock- 
ing that he had to lean against a gun for sup- 

146 



THE LAST OF THE "ESSEX" 

port. The force of the '* Essex" was forty-six 
guns and two hundred and fifty-five men. 
That of the Enghsh, in conservative estimates, 
was seventy-three guns and four hundred and 
twenty-one men. The English lost five killed 
and ten wounded. The '' Essex" fifty-eight 
killed, sixty-six wounded, and thirty-one miss- 
ing. 

Thus died the " Essex" in one of the blood- 
iest and most obstinate combats on record. 



147 



THE CAPTAIN OF THE 
MAINTOP 

JAMES JARVIS was one of the *\young 
gentlemen" on the '' Constellation" dur- 
ing the war with France. " Young gen- 
tlemen" was what the midshipmen were called 
in the old naval service, and Jarvis was 
the youngest of them all, being just thirteen 
at the time of the action with the ''Ven- 
geance." He was the smallest officer aboard, 
and his most important duties were those of 
passing the word from the quarter-deck for- 
ward, and taking his station aloft in the mam- 
top, where he was learning the mysteries of 
the maze of gear which went through the lub- 
ber's-hole or belayed in the top. He also 
stood at quarters with his diminutive sword 
drawn, — a smaller edition of the lieutenants, 
who were allowed to wear one epaulette and 
who could make a louder noise through the 
speaking-trumpet than Jarvis could hope to 
for years. Down in the midshipmen's mess, 
by virtue of his diminutive stature and tender 
years, he was not much interfered with by 

Wederstrandt, Henry, Vandyke, and the big- 

148 



THE CAPTAIN OF THE MAINTOP 

ger men. But he fought one or two of the 
young gentlemen nearer his age, and, though 
frequently defeated, stood up as strongly as 
possible for what he deemed his rights. He 
was a manly little reefer, and up in the main- 
top, where he was stationed in time of action, 
the men swore by him. He was sensible 
enough not to give any orders without the 
professional opinion of one of the old jackies, 
who always ventured it with a touch of the 
cap, a respectful **Sir," and perhaps a half- 
concealed smile, which was more of interest 
than amusement. Thirteen was rather a ten- 
der age at which to command men of fifty, but 
the midshipmen of those .days were not ordi- 
nary boys. They went out from their comfort- 
able homes aboard ships where men were even 
rougher and less well-disciplined than they are 
to-day, and they had either to sink or swim. 
It was Spartan treatment; but a year of it 
made men and sailors of them or else sent 
them posting home to their mothers and sis- 
ters. 

Jarvis loved it, and did his duty like a man. 
He knew the lead of all the gear on his mast, 
and kept his few pieces of brass-work aloft 
shining like new. He kept the rigging in his 
top, even when there was no occasion for it, 

coiled down as though for inspection, although 

149 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

nobody but the topmen and yardmen ever 
had occasion to examine it. He was as active 
as a monkey, and, scorning the '' lubber' s-hole," 
went over the futtock-shrouds as smartly as 
any of the light-yardmen. 

The greatest and probably the only regret 
of midshipman Jarvis's short life was that he 
had not joined the great frigate before she met 
and defeated the " Insurgente" the year be- 
fore. He wanted to be in a great action. 
Nothing seemed to make him feel more of 
a man than when the long i8-pounders were 
fired in broadside at target-practice. If he 
had been but a boy, instead of an officer with 
a gold-laced cap and a dirk and all the digni- 
ties pertaining to those habiliments, he would 
have clapped his hands and shouted for sheer 
joy. But the eyes of his men were upon him, 
and so he stood watching the flight of the 
shots, and biting hard on his lips he kept his 
composure. 

Captain Truxton, ever mindful of his mid- 
shipmen, had disposed them in different parts 
of the ship with regard to their size and useful- 
ness. The older ones had been given gun-di- 
visions, while the youngsters were placed on 
the fo'c's'le or in the tops, where they might 
be of assistance, but would more certainly be 
out of harm's way. Such a thought was not 

150 



THE CAPTAIN OF THE MAINTOP 

suggested on the '' Constellation." If it had 
been, little Jarvis would probably have re- 
signed immediately, or at the very least have 
burst into unmanly tears. As it was, he felt 
that his post aloft was as important as any on 
the ship, and he promised himself that if 
another Frenchman was sighted he would stay 
there whether the mast were up or down. 

So, on the ist of February, 1800, just about 
a year after the capture of the *'Insurgente," 
while they were bowling along under easy sail, 
about fifteen miles off Basse Terre, a large 
sail, which appeared to be a French frigate, 
was sighted to the southward. Jarvis went 
aloft two ratlines at a time, his heart bounding 
with joy at the prospect of the chance of a 
fight. 

On assuring himself that she was a large 
ship, Captain Truxton immediately set all sail 
and took a course which soon brought her 
hull above the horizon and showed the Amer- 
icans beyond a doubt that she was a ship-of- 
war of heavier metal than the " Constellation." 
Nothing daunted, Truxton bore on his course 
until the gun-streaks of the other vessel could 
be plainly seen. Instead of showing the same 
desire to speak, the stranger held on, pointing 
a little off his course, as though anxious to 

avoid an encounter. 

151 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

But the breeze, which had been light, now 
died away altogether, and the sea became 
calm. There the two great vessels drifted in 
sight of each other all night and part of the 
following day, awaiting the wind which would 
enable them to close. Jarvis was in a fever 
of impatience. A half a dozen times he got 
permission from the officer of the deck, and 
with a telescope almost as long as himself, 
clambered up to the main-royal to report. 
There was but one opinion among the mid- 
shipmen who went aloft, — she was a French- 
man. She could not be anything else. 

About two o'clock in the afternoon of the 
next day, up to the northward they saw the 
ripple on the water of the wind they had been 
waiting for. The sail-loosers flew aloft, and 
every sail was spread to catch it. Soon the 
" Constellation" was pushing her way through 
the water, and the foam was even flying from 
the wave-tops here and there. The chase had 
caught the breeze at about the same time, and 
the Americans could see by the line of white 
under her bow that she was beginning to leg 
it at a handsome rate. But the " Constella- 
tion" was in excellent condition for a race, and 
by degrees drew up on the other ship, which 
as they reached her was seen to lie very low 

in the water, as though deep-laden. They 

152 



THE CAPTAIN OF THE MAINTOP 

were sure to discover who she was before 
nightfall, so Truxton cleared his ship for 
action. Jarvis went aloft to his top and saw 
the backstays lashed and the preventer-braces 
securely hooked and rove. Extra muskets 
were carried up into his top for the use of the 
jackies and marines when they should come 
into close quarters, for then the fire of sharp- 
shooters would be almost as valuable as the 
shots of the great guns. 

Their work had been over an hour and the 
sun had set in a clear sky before the " Con- 
stellation" drew up to gunshot distance. It 
was moonlight before she came within effect- 
ive range. The battle-lanterns were lit, and 
the long row of lights on the Frenchman 
showed that he, too, was prepared for fight. 
The sky was clear, and the moon, which was 
nearly at the full, made the outlines of the 
vessels perfectly visible to the men at the 
guns. Jarvis, from his post aloft, could plainly 
see the lines of heads along the poop, and fan- 
cied that he could make out a midshipman 
almost as young as he, who was clambering 
about the maintop of the other vessel. He 
heard the beating of a drum and the sound of 
cheers as the Frenchmen moved to their quar- 
ters. 

On the decks below there was not a sound. 

153 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

Truxton had given his men their orders. There 
was to be no cheering until there was some- 
thing to cheer for. They were to await the 
order to fire until the enemy was close aboard, 
and then, and not until then, was the broad- 
side to be delivered. The division-officers had 
gone about quietly repeating these commands 
to the gun-captains, and there was nothing 
further to say. Only to wait until the battle 
began. Jarvis repeated to his topmen, word 
for word, the instructions he had received, that 
in their aim particular attention was to be paid 
to the officers of the enemy. 

Soon a gun from the after-battery of the 
Frenchman was fired. This was followed 
shortly by all the guns that would bear. Some 
of the shots crashed into the hull of the " Con- 
stellation," and one of them killed several men. 
The division-officers glanced appealingly to 
Truxton, in the hope of the order to fire ; but 
he merely held up his hand. Again the broad- 
side came, and men seemed to be falling every- 
where. The strain below and aloft was terrific. 
But the officers stood steadily, with a word of 
encouragement here and there, and the men 
did not flinch. 

At last the " Constellation" came abreast 
the after-ports of the Frenchman, and Trux- 
ton, throwing her off a little, so that all his 

154 




THE "CONSTELLATION'' AND THE "VENGEANCE" 



THE CAPTAIN OF THE MAINTOP 

broadside would bear in a diagonal direction, 
loudly shouted the order to fire. 

The telling broadside was delivered, and the 
battle was on in earnest. To those aloft the 
crash of the long eighteens into the hull of the 
enemy at every other downward roll of the 
'' Constellation" showed how well the Ameri- 
can gunners had learned to shoot, while the 
short bark of the cannonades and the shrieks in 
the brief pauses from the decks of the French- 
man told of the terrible effects of the fire 
among the enemy. The guns of the French- 
man were well served and rapidly fired, but 
they were aiming on the upward roll of the 
sea, and their shots went high. Several balls 
from the smaller pieces had lodged in the fore- 
mast and mainmast, and one had struck just 
below the futtock-band of the maintop, where 
Jarvis was, and sent the splinters flying up 
and all about him. Yard-arm to yard-arm they 
sailed for three long, bloody hours, until the 
firing of the Frenchman gradually slackened 
and then stopped almost altogether. The 
Americans had suffered less on the decks than 
aloft, and Jarvis' s topmen were employed most 
of the time in splicing and re-reeving gear. 
The discharge of the " Constellation's" broad- 
side-guns did not diminish for a moment, and 
so fast was the firing that many of the guns 

155 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

became overheated, and the men had to crawl 
out of the exposed ports to draw up buckets 
of water to cool them. 

At about midnight Truxton managed to draw 
ahead of his adversary in the smoke, and, tak- 
ing a raking position, sent in such a broadside 
that the Frenchman was silenced completely. 

Jarvis and the men in the maintop had little 
time to use their muskets. Several long shots 
had struck the mast, and almost every shroud 
and backstay had been carried away. As the 
''Constellation" bore down upon her adver- 
sary to deal her the death-blow, the mast 
began swaying frightfully. There was a cry 
from the men at Jarvis's side, and the marines 
and topmen began dropping through the lub- 
ber' s-hole, swinging themselves down the sides 
of the swaying mast by whatever gear they 
could lay their hands to. 

Jarvis did not move. One of the older sea- 
men took him by the shoulder and urged him 
to go below. • The mast was going, he said, 
and it meant certain death to stay aloft. 

Little Jarvis smiled at him. ''This is my 
post of duty," he replied, "and I am going to 
stay here until ordered below." 

At this moment a terrific crackling was 

heard, and the old man-o'-warsman went over 

the edge of the top. All the strain was on 

156 



THE CAPTAIN OF THE MAINTOP 

one or two of the shrouds, and, just as he 
reached the deck, with a tremendous crash the 
great mast went over the side. 

Jarvis had kept his promise to stay by his 
mast whether it was up or down. 

The Frenchman, not so badly injured aloft, 
took advantage of the condition of the '' Con- 
stellation," and, slowly making sail before the 
wreck was cleared away, faded into the night. 
It was afterwards discovered that she was the 
''Vengeance," of fifty-two guns. She suc- 
ceeded in reaching Curagoa in a sinking con- 
dition. 

When the news of the fight reached home. 
Congress gave Truxton a medal and a sword, 
and prize money to the officers and crew. 

For little Jarvis, the midshipman, who pre- 
ferred to die at his post, Congress passed a 
special resolution, which read : 

''Resolved, That the conduct of James Jar- 
vis, a midshipman in said frigate, who glori- 
ously preferred certain death to an abandon- 
ment of his post, is deserving of the highest 
praise, and that the loss of so promising an 
officer is a subject of national regret." 

History does not show an instance of nobler 
self-sacrifice, and no such honor as this special 
act of Congress was received by a boy before 
or since. 

157 



GUSHING AND THE '^ ALBE- 
MARLE" 

A LTHOUGH the Civil War furnished many 
jL\ instances of conspicuous gallantry, so 
many that most of them remain to-day 
comparatively unknown, none was more nota- 
ble than the torpedo exploit of Lieutenant Wil- 
liam Barker Gushing. There have been sev- 
eral similar expeditions in our naval history. 
Before Tripoli, Richard Somers made the ill- 
fated attempt with the '' Intrepid," and in the 
war with Spain Richmond Hobson sunk the 
" Merrimac." There is no question that the 
personal and sentimental aspects of these 
three hazardous enterprises are similar. All 
three men were young, and each one knew 
that he took his life in his hands. Somers, 
rather than be captured with his powder, de- 
stroyed both his ship and himself Hobson 
sunk the '' Merrimac," but did not succeed in 
getting her athwart the channel. Gushing, in 
a torpedo-launch, went under the guns of the 
enemy, and escaped both death and imprison- 
ment. On the enemy the moral effect of all 

three exploits must have been the same. Pro- 

158 



GUSHING AND THE "ALBEMARLE" 

fessionally, Gushing' s exploit has just this dis- 
tinction : he was successful. Like Decatur in 
the recapture of the '' Philadelphia," he carried 
out in every detail the plans he had made. 
And upon his success the way was opened for 
the Union fleet, and the hopes of the Gonfed- 
erates fled, for only two seaports in the South 
— Gharleston and Wilmington — remained open 
to them. 

After the great success of the " Merrimac" 
in Hampton Roads, the Gonfederates deter- 
mined to construct a vessel of similar design 
for use in the Southern rivers and sounds. 
Under great difficulties they built the "Albe- 
marle" on the Roanoke River, and carried her 
into action almost before the last rivet was 
driven. She was a formidable craft in those 
days, and the shots from the vessels of the 
Northern fleet went harmlessly against her iron 
sides to break and fly into a thousand pieces. 
On the 5th of May the "Albemarle" had 
another fight with a larger fleet of Union ves- 
sels, which had gathered to hem in and dis- 
able her. During the action the " Sassacus" 
saw an opportunity to ram her, and, going 
ahead at full speed, struck the ram a terrific 
blow amidships. The bow of the " Sassacus" 
was literally torn to pieces by the impact, and 
the "Albemarle," though heeling over and in 

159 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

danger of sinking for a time, finally righted 
and pulled out of the action uninjured, but by 
no means disabled. All of the vessels of the 
squadron kept up a heavy fire upon her, but 
she went on to her anchorage up the river, 
where a few repairs made her as good as ever. 

It looked to the Unionists as though the 
story of the '' Merrimac" with the " Congress" 
and the " Cumberland" was about to be re- 
peated ; that the " Albemarle" in course of 
time would come down at her leisure and 
destroy all Northern vessels in those waters. 
To make matters worse, the Unionists learned 
that another vessel of a similar type was 
nearly completed, and that the two vessels 
would attack at the same time, — a combina- 
tion which, with their consorts, seemed irresist- 
ible. Something had to be done if the com- 
mand of the sounds of the Carolinas was to 
remain with the navy of the North. 

But during the summer of 1864 two steam 
launches rigged up as torpedo-boats, the in- 
vention of Engineer J. L. Long, were fitted 
out at New York and brought down through 
the canals to Albemarle Sound. The bows 
of the boats were cut under and decked over, 
and the engines were so built that when cov- 
ered and moving at a low rate of speed they 

made little or no noise. A spar ten or fifteen 

160 



GUSHING AND THE "ALBEMARLE" 

feet long, which carried a torpedo and a firing 
attachment, projected forward over the bow, 
and a small howitzer was also mounted for- 
ward where it would be useful to repel attack. 

The government had decided to make a 
night attempt on the "Albemarle," and the 
honor of the command of the expedition was 
bestowed on Lieutenant Gushing, who had 
half a dozen times before received the thanks 
of the secretary of the navy for gallantry in 
action off Gape Fear River. 

The expedition was favored by the inac- 
tivity of the Gonfederates. The "Albemarle" 
lay alongside the dock at Plymouth awaiting 
the completion of her sister-ship, but this 
needless delay gave Gushing the opportunity 
he wanted. 

The Gonfederates were fully aware of the 
plans of the Unionist's navy, and a thousand 
soldiers remained to guard the "Albemarle" 
from land attack as well as to act as sentries 
for a distance along the river bank. To pro- 
vide against torpedoes, a line of great cypress 
logs was boomed off her sides at a distance of 
twenty to thirty feet, so that it seemed impos- 
sible to come within striking distance. Besides 
this, the smaller guns of the ram were trained 
up and down the river, — which here was but 
one hundred and fifty yards wide, — to sweep 

" i6i 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

the entire area over which the attacking party 
had to pass. 

But Gushing, like Decatur, rejoiced at ob- 
stacles. He was only twenty-one, but he car- 
ried a man's head on his broad shoulders, and 
the planning of such an expedition down to 
the smallest detail was a task which he en- 
tered into with judgment and enthusiasm, in- 
gredients as rare as they are necessary in such 
a desperate enterprise. 

After a week spent in preparation and ex- 
periment, the gunboat " Otsego" brought the 
launch to the mouth of the river, where Gush- 
ing cast off and pointed his bow toward Ply- 
mouth, towing a cutter full of armed men, who 
were to capture, if possible, a Gonfederate 
guard, — which had been set in a schooner near 
the sunken '' Southfield," — to prevent their 
giving the alarm. But the expedition started 
badly, for the launch ran aground on a bar. 
Before Gushing could float her again it was 
too late to make the attempt. Gushing and 
his boat's crews then returned to the " Ot- 
sego." 

The next night was black and squally, with 
occasional showers of rain. They could only 
make out the loom of the shore by straining 
their eyes into the darkness. Gushing was as 

cool as though taking shore-liberty. As he 

162 



GUSHING AND THE "ALBEMARLE" 

shook hands with the ''Otsego's" officers he 
paused at the gangway to say, with a laugh, — 

''Well, here goes for another stripe or a 
coffin." 

They crept slowly up the river, keeping 
close to the bank, under the shadow of the 
reeds and trees. The little engine, covered 
with tarpaulins, made so little sound that the 
men in the cutter towing astern could hardly 
hear it. There was not a sound except the 
plashing of the gusts of rain and the ripple of 
the water as the little craft moved steadily on. 
Gushing knew he must be passing some of the 
pickets now, so not a word even in whispers 
was spoken. Every man had his duty and 
knew when to do it. Acting Ensign William 
Howarth was aft at Gushing' s side. Acting 
Master's Mate John Woodman, who knew the 
river, was next to him. The other officers 
were Acting Master's Mate Thomas S. Gay, 
Acting Assistant-Paymaster Francis H. Swan, 
and Acting Third-Assistant-Engineers Charles 
L. Steever and William Stotesbury. 

By half-past two a.m., about a mile below 
Plymouth, where the ''Albemarle" lay, they 
came upon the submerged " Southfield," and 
could just make out the lines of the guard- 
schooner. The machinery of the launch was 

slowed, almost stopped, for Gushing had de- 

163 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

cided to get by her if he could without a fight. 
It was a moment of utmost anxiety, and every 
man was prepared for the attack. But there 
was no sign of discovery from the schooners, 
and in ten minutes the little expedition had 
passed up the river in safety. 

But only the first danger of discovery was 
over. Between the '' Southfield" and Plym- 
outh the bank was guarded by a double line of 
sentries, and the men in the boats, now moving 
more quickly, could see the red glare of the 
smouldering fires reaching all the way to town. 
As they came to the point beyond which the 
ram was lying, they found, to their delight, 
that the fires which should have been brightly 
burning were smouldering in the rain. There 
was no sign of a man to be made out any- 
where, and Gushing pushed on directly for the 
"Albemarle," which he could now see plainly 
as she lay at the wharf, grim and menacing, 
but without a sign of life. 

Suddenly from the shore there came the 

sharp bark of a dog. To the ears of Gushing 

and his men in the deep silence and anxiety 

of the moment it sounded like the report of a 

Dahlgren. There was a cry from a sentry and 

a challenge, followed by a musket-shot and 

the bullet flew over the boats and struck the 

water fifty feet away with a vicious ping that 

164 



GUSHING AND THE "ALBEMARLE" 

sounded not less loud than the report itself. 
There was another challenge, and in a moment 
the cries came from everywhere. Other dogs 
began barking, and it seemed as though the 
whole town was aroused. The sentries on 
both sides of the stream threw inflammable 
material on the smouldering fires, and in a 
moment the river was as bright as day. 

Realizing that further concealment was use- 
less, Gushing himself cast off the towline of 
the cutter, and telling the men in her to row 
for their lives, gave the engineer the order, 
"Four bells, ahead full speed," setting the 
nose of the launch directly for the ram. The 
sparks flew up from her stack, and the dark 
water churned up in masses of foam under 
her stern, as like a sentient thing she leaped 
forward on her deadly mission. It was then 
that Gushing discovered for the first time the 
line of torpedo booms which guarded the ram. 
In facing the musketry-fire and the great guns 
of their enormous adversary the task of getting 
close enough to reach her seemed impossible. 

Gushing knew that if he was to get over the 
log booms he must strike them fair ; then per- 
haps he could slide over within striking dis- 
tance. He shifted his helm, and making a 
wide sweep out into the stream, gathered all 

the headway he could and came down into the 

165 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

very jaws of the great monster. A tremen- 
dous volley from the shot-guns and muskets 
of the sentries greeted them, and Paymaster 
Swan was wounded. Cushing received a 
charge of buckshot in the back of his coat 
and had the sole of his shoe torn off, but these 
were the only shots which took effect. 

Cushing here shouted, in a loud voice, 
'' Leave the ram ; we're going to blow you 
up !" hoping to create a panic. But the Con- 
federates continued firing, and succeeded in 
getting in two howitzer-shots, one of which 
felled a man by Cushing' s side. At this mo- 
ment. Gay, up forward in the launch, took 
careful aim with the howitzer, and sent a 
charge in the midst of the Confederate crew. 
Then with a slight jar the sled-like bow rose 
on the boom. She balanced a second, and 
slid over within the enclosure, half full of 
water, but within reaching distance. 

One of the great guns of the "Albemarle," 
a hundred-pounder, protruded from a broad- 
side port directly in front of them, and they 
could see the gun-crew frantically training the 
gun and trying to depress the muzzl e enough 
to bear on them. It was a matter of seconds 
now. Who would fire first? Cushing had 
lowered the torpedo-spar, and as soon as he 
had it well under the overhang he detached it, 

i66 



GUSHING AND THE -ALBEMARLE" 

then waited until he heard the torpedo strike 

the hull, when he pulled the trigger-line. He 

was not a fraction of a second too soon, for 

the two concussions were almost simultaneous. 

There was a muffled roar from below the great 

vessel, and a column of water shot out from 

under her as she lifted on the wave. The 

shock of the hundred-pounder, was terrific, and 

it seemed as if the frail launch had been blown 

to pieces. But Gushing had been too quick 

for . them. The charge of canister passed a 

few feet over their heads and scattered in the 

river beyond. 

The work of the gallant crew was done. 

Gushing had made a hole in the '' Albemarle" 

large enough to have driven a wagon through. 

The great wave of the torpedo rose and went 

completely over the launch, swamping her 

alongside and throwing her men into the water. 

All of them got to the booms safely. Here 

Gushing paused a moment to throw off his 

outer clothing, while the Gonfederates on the 

banks were shouting to the men to surrender. 

Several of them, being unable to swim, did so; 

but Gushing, calling to the others to follow 

him, plunged boldly into the water and struck 

off down the stream. He was a powerful 

swimmer, but the night was cold, and he knew 

that he could not keep up very long. But he 

167 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

swam for half an hour, and he came upon 
Woodman in the middle of the stream, almost 
exhausted. Though almost entirely fagged 
out himself, he tried to help the mate towards 
the shore. Finding that he was being pulled 
down and unable to save the other. Gushing 
struggled on, and reached the shoal water more 
dead than alive. Here he lay among the reeds 
until dawn, when he learned from a negro how 
complete had been his success. At last, after 
almost twenty-four hours' exposure, he suc- 
ceeded in finding one of the enemy's deserted 
picket-skiffs, and managed under cover of the 
second night to pull off to the Federal "Valley 
City," which he reached at eleven o'clock at 
night, and was hauled aboard completely ex- 
hausted from his labor and exposure. Only 
one other of his crew reached a place of safety. 
Woodman and Samuel Higgins, the fireman, 
were drowned. The others went ashore and 
surrendered or were captured. 

This service, because of the great benefit to 
the Union cause and the daring manner in 
which it had been performed, made Cushing 
the hero of the year. Congress passed a vote 
of thanks and promoted him to the rank of 
lieutenant-commander, which he held until 
1872, when he became a commander. 

He did not long enjoy his honors, for two 

1 68 



GUSHING AND THE "ALBEMARLE" 

years later he died of brain fever, in Washing- 
ton, at the age of thirty-two. Had he lived he 
would have been but fifty-six years of age at 
the outbreak of the war with Spain, and would 
have been one of the ranking officers in active 
service of the new navy. 



169 



SOMERS AND THE ^'IN- 
TREPID" 

A MONG the young officers of Commodore 
/V Preble's squadron before Tripoli there 
was a tall, dark, melancholy-looking 
fellow of about twenty-five. His name was^ 
Richard Somers and his command was the 
''Nautilus," a little schooner of twelve guns 
and a hundred men. 'He had been with De- 
catur and Stewart, a junior officer on Com- 
modore Barry's '' United States" in the war 
with Spain, and the friendship formed in those 
early days had been cemented by a score of 
thrilling adventures which had drawn them 
more closely together than brothers. Charles 
Stewart, before Decatur's promotion to post- 
captain, had been the second in command to 
Preble, and his vessel, the '' Siren," had taken 
a prominent part in all the many actions with 
the Tripolitan forts and gunboats. He was a 
year or so older than his companions and had 
drifted a little away from them. But Decatur 
and Somers were inseparable. Some bond 
outside of mere professional sympathy and 
environment existed between them, and there 

170 



SOMERS AND THE "INTREPID" 

seemed to be no thought of the one that the 
other did not share. The difference in their 
temperaments was marked. Decatur was 
bold, domineering, and impetuous. Somers 
was quiet, mild, and ever avoided the quarrel 
which Decatur too often sought. But under 
the quiet exterior men had found a will like 
iron and the willingness to dare and do any- 
thing that came within the province of his 
profession. He was thoughtful, but not so 
quiet that he could not enter into the gayety 
of the mess ; he was mild, but not so mild that 
he would overlook shortcomings among his 
men or brook any slight upon his office or his 
reputation. 

In the old days on the '' United States" there 
happened an affair which immediately estab- 
lished his reputation as an officer and a man. 
At first he was not understood. His brother 
midshipmen, mistaking the reserve of his man- 
ner for weakness, did not hesitate before they 
had been aboard with him a month to take 
advantage of him in the steerage and on deck 
in every possible way. Not only did they 
slight him, but, after the manner of the cadet 
midshipman of recent years, they made him 
the butt of most of their practical jokes below- 
decks. Somers stood it for a while in silence. 

He dearly loved peace, and, beyond a good- 

171 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

humored protest, let everything pass for what 
it was worth. But as the weeks went by and 
the bantering continued, instead of laughing 
it off as before, Somers became more and 
more quiet and self-contained. 

Decatur, ever humorous and mischief- 
making, had himself been one of the worst to 
chaff his comrade ; but he knew what Somers' 
silence meant, and he desisted. He had been 
his school-mate in Philadelphia, and he had 
seen that ominous quiet before. Decatur 
would have fought for him to the last drop of 
his blood, but he felt that his comrade was 
well able to look out for himself. 

Somers went about his duties quietly, never 
giving a sign that there was anything upon 
his mind until the day before coming into 
port, then he went to Decatur, and said, — 

" Stephen, to-morrow I want you to go 
ashore with me, for I am going to meet three 
men." 

The next afternoon a cutter containing 
Somers, Decatur, and three midshipmen, with 
their seconds, went ashore and found a se- 
cluded spot upon the beach where they would 
be free from interference. He had challenged 
all three to fight at the same time and would 
take them in succession. 

In the first two duels Somers received two 

172 



SOMERS AND THE "INTREPID" 

shots in the body, the latter one of which 
caused him to sink upon the sand as though 
dangerously hurt ; but he rallied quickly, and, 
seeing that the third midshipman was standing 
waiting to see if the battle could be continued, 
he tried to struggle to his feet. He found he 
could not get up, and Decatur offered to take 
his place and receive the fire of the third 
midshipman. But Somers, though suffering 
greatly, was not to be deterred, and bade De- 
catur prop him up in a sitting posture, in 
which position he exchanged shots with the 
third man. Fortunately, none of the injuries 
resulted fatally, and in a few weeks Somers 
was on deck again. He went about his duties 
as quietly as before, but never after that did 
they call him milksop. 

It was Somers who led one division of the 
gunboats to attack the Tripolitan fleet while 
Decatur was leading the other. Finding that 
he could not reach them by the eastern en- 
trance, he sailed into the northern entrance 
of the harbor and single-handed boldly sent 
his little vessel into the midst of five of the 
enemy. His gunboat was smaller than any 
one of those of his adversaries ; but so well 
was his long gun served and so true was the 
fire of his musketry that he held them at bay 
for half an hour, and not one of them suc- 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

ceeded in getting alongside of him to board. 
They were all bearing straight down upon the 
rocks, though, and Somers could not spare 
enough men from the guns to man his sweeps. 
But Preble, on the "Constitution," saw his 
danger, and, coming up in time, sent a broad- 
side of grape among the pirates, and they got 
out their sweeps and retreated, when, in spite 
of the doggedness of the defence, one united 
attack would have made the victory theirs. 
But as they drew off, instead of returning, as 
Preble wished, to the " Constitution," Somers 
pursued them until within less than a cable's 
length of a twelve-gun battery, which had not 
fired before for fear of damaging the fleeing 
Tripolitans. When she opened fire at this 
close range the destruction of Somers's valiant 
little vessel seemed inevitable. But by a 
lucky chance a bombard exploded in the bat- 
tery, blew up the platform, and drove the Tri- 
politans to cover. 

Before they could recover and train their 
guns, Somers managed to bring his craft out 
in safety. In a later action, as Somers stood 
leaning against a flag-staff on his little vessel, 
a shot came directly for him. The officer saw 
it in time, and jumped aside to see the spar car- 
ried away at just the spot where his head had 
been. He was spared for more deadly work. 

174 



SOMERS AND THE "INTREPID" 

While these many attacks were being made 
upon the gunboats and batteries, the "In- 
trepid," in which Decatur had recaptured 
and destroyed the " Philadelphia," was being 
rapidly prepared as a fire-ship. Their plan 
was to load her with a hundred barrels of 
powder in bulk, with bags of grape and solid 
shot, and under cover of the night explode 
her in the midst of the Tripolitan war-vessels. 
Somers, who had been frequently in the har- 
bor of Tripoli and knew its reefs and rocks 
so that he could readily thread his way through 
the narrow channels, asked for the opportunity 
to command this expedition. But Decatur's 
success in boarding the ''Philadelphia" had 
raised the chivalry of every officer and man 
in the fleet to a point rarely equalled in our 
own history, and Somers, while he did not be- 
grudge Decatur his two epaulettes, "was filled 
with the passion to do a deed as great, if not 
greater. They had been rivals since youth, 
and he felt that now was the opportunity to 
attempt a great deed for his country, though 
he and every man in the fleet knew that the 
chances of coming out alive were but one 
in a hundred. Somers went to Commodore 
Preble and urged his knowledge of the harbor 
as. his chief claim to the service. It was an 
honor that a half-dozen other men sought, and 

175 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

not until the old commodore had weighed the 
chances fully did he at last agree to let 
Somers go. But, before consenting, Preble re- 
peatedly warned the young officer of the des- 
perate character of the work, and told him 
that on account of the Napoleonic wars the 
Tripolitans were short of ammunition, and 
that so much powder must not fall into the 
hands of the enemy. But Somers needed no 
warning. A day or two afterwards, when the 
preparations were nearly completed, Preble 
and some other officers were trying a fuse in 
the cabin of the "Constitution." One of the 
officers, watch in hand, ventured the opinion 
that it burned too long and might enable the 
enemy to put it out before it exploded the mag- 
azine. Hearing this, Somers said, quietly, — 

*' I ask for no fuse at all." 

He was more gentle than ever in those last 
few days, and as he and Decatur leaned over 
the hammock-nettings of "Old Ironsides," 
looking towards the line of white where the 
sea was breaking over the outer roofs, the 
melancholy look seemed to deepen and the 
far-away expression in his eyes was of another 
world. Decatur knew that rather than give up 
his ship and his powder, Somers would blow 
the ship and himself to eternity. 

When volunteers were called for, the des- 

176 



SOMERS AND THE "INTREPID" 

perateness of the enterprise was fully ex- 
plained ; but the crew of the '' Nautilus," Som- 
ers's own vessel stepped forward to a man. 
He selected four, — James Simms, Thomas 
Tompline, James Harris, and William Keith. 
From the '' Constitution" he took William 
Harrison, Robert Clark, Hugh McCormick, 
Jacob Williams, Peter Penner, and Isaac 
Downes. Midshipman Henry Wadsworth (an 
uncle of the poet Longfellow) was chosen as 
second in command. Midshipman Joseph 
Israel, having vainly pleaded with Somers to 
be allowed to go, at the last moment smuggled 
himself aboard the ''Intrepid," and when dis- 
covered Somers had not the heart to send him 
back. 

Decatur and Stewart went aboard the 
" Nautilus" on the evening that the attempt 
had been planned. The three had been so 
closely united all their lives that Stewart and 
Decatur felt the seriousness of the moment. 
Even professionally the attempt seemed al- 
most foolhardy, for several Tripolitan vessels 
had come to anchor just within the entrance, 
and to pass them even at night seemed an 
impossibility. Somers felt a premonition of 
his impending catastrophe, for just as they 
were about to return to their own vessels he 
took a ring from his finger and, breaking it 

12 177 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

into three pieces, gave each of them a part, 
retaining the third for himself. 

As soon as the night fell the " Intrepid" cast 
off her lines and went slowly up towards the 
harbor. The ''Argus," the ''Vixen," and the 
'' Nautilus" followed her, while shortly after- 
wards Stewart on the "Siren" became so 
anxious that he followed, too. A haze that had 
come up when the sun went down hung 
heavily over the water, and soon the lines of 
the fire-ship became a mere gray blur against 
the dark coast-line beyond. The excitement 
upon the guard-ships now became intense, and 
both officers and men climbed the rigging and 
leaned out in the chains in the hope of being 
able to follow the movements of the ketch. 
Midshipman Ridgley, on the ''Nautilus," by 
the aid of a powerful night-glass aloft, managed 
to follow her until she got well within the har- 
bor, and then she vanished. The suspense 
soon became almost unbearable, for not a shot 
had been fired and not a sound came from the 
direction in which she had gone. At about 
nine o'clock a half-dozen cannon-shots could 
be plainly heard, and even the knowledge that 
she had been discovered and was being fired 
on was a relief from the awful silence. 

At about ten o'clock Stewart was standing 

at the gangway of the "Siren," with Lieu- 

178 



SOMERS AND THE "INTREPID" 

tenant Carrol, when the latter, craning his 
neck out into the night, suddenly exclaimed, — 

'^Look! See the light !" 

Stewart saw away up the harbor a speck of 
light, as if from a lantern, which moved rapidly, 
as though it were being carried by some one 
running along a deck. Then it paused and 
disappeared from view. In a second a tre- 
mendous flame shot up hundreds of feet into 
the air, and the glare of it was so intense that 
it seemed close aboard. The flash and shock 
were so stupendous that the guard-ships, 
though far out to sea, trembled and shivered like 
the men who watched and were blinded. The 
sound of the explosion which followed seemed 
to shake sea and sky. It was like a hundred 
thunder-claps, and they could hear the echoes 
of it go rolling down across the water until it 
was swallowed up in the silence of the night. 

That was all. The officers and the men 
looked at one another in mute horror. Could 
anything have lived in the area of that dread- 
ful explosion ? The tension upon the men of 
the little fleet was almost at the breaking point. 
Every eye was strained towards the harbor 
and every ear caught eagerly at the faintest 
sound. Officers and men frequently asked 
one another the question, " Have you heard 

anything yet?" with always the same reply. 

179 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

The vessels beat to and fro between the 
harbor-entrances, firing rockets and guns for 
the guidance of possible fugitives. And the 
doleful sound of that gun made the silences 
the more depressing. All night long did the 
fleet keep vigil, but not a shot, a voice, or even 
a splash came from the harbor. 

With the first streaks of dawn the Americans 
were aloft with their glasses. On the rocks 
at the northern entrance, through which the 
''Intrepid" had passed, they saw a mast and 
fragments of vessels. When the mist cleared 
they saw that one of the enemy's largest gun- 
boats had disappeared and two others were so 
badly shattered that they lay upon the shore 
for repairs. 

The details of the occurrence were never 
actually known, but it is thought that Somers, 
being laid aboard by three gunboats before 
actually in the midst of the shipping, and feel- 
ing himself overpowered, fired his magazine 
and destroyed himself and his own men in his 
avowed purpose not to be taken by the enemy. 

Thus died Richard Somers, Henry Wads- 
worth, the midshipman, Joseph Israel, and ten 
American seamen, whose names have been 
inscribed on the navy's roll of fame. Noth- 
ing can dim the honor of a man who dies 

willingly for his country. 

1 80 



THE 
PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

OLD SALTS AND NEW SAILORS 

SINCE ballad-mongering began, the sea 
and the men who go down to it in 
ships have been a fruitful theme ; and 
the conventional song-singing, horn-piping tar 
of the chanteys is a creature of fancy, pure and 
simple. 

Jack is as honest as any man. Aboard ship 
he goes about his duties willingly, a creature 
of habit and environment, with a goodly re- 
spect for his "old man" and the articles of 
war. Ashore he is an innocent, — a brand for 
the burning, with a half-month's pay and a 
devouring thirst. 

Sailor-men all over the world are the same, 
and will be throughout all time, except in so 
far as their life is improved by new conditions. 
Though Jack aboard ship is the greatest grum- 
bler in the world, ashore he loves all the world, 
and likes to be taken for the sailor of the 
songs. In a week he will spend the earnings 
of many months, and go back aboard ship, 
sadder, perhaps, but never a wiser man. 

i8i 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

He seldom makes resolutions, however, and 
so, when anchor takes ground again, his money 
leaves him with the same merry clink as before. 
Though a Bohemian and a nomad, he does not 
silently steal away, like the Arab. His goings, 
like his comings, are accompanied with much 
carousing and song-singing ; and the sweet- 
heart he leaves gets to know that wiving is 
not for him. With anchor atrip and helm 
alee, Jack mourns not, no matter whither 
bound. 

The improved conditions on the modern 
men-of-war have chanored thinofs for him some- 
what, and, though still impregnated with old 
ideas. Jack is more temperate, more fore- 
sighted, and more self-reliant than he once 
was. His lapses of discipline and his falls 
from grace are less frequent than of yore, for 
he has to keep an eye to windward if he ex- 
pects to win any of the benefits that are gen- 
erously held out to the hard-working, sober, 
and deserving. 

But the bitterness of the old days is barely 
disguised in the jollity of the chanteys. How- 
ever we take it, the sea-life is a hardship the 
like of which no land-lubber knows. Stories 
of the trials of the merchant service come to 
him now and then and open his eyes to the 

real conditions of the service. 

182 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

Men are greater brutes at sea than ashore. 
The one-man power, absolute, supreme in the 
old days, when all license was free and mon- 
archies trod heavily on weak necks, led men 
to deeds of violence and death, whenever vio- 
lence and death seemed the easiest methods 
of enforcing discipline. Men were knocked 
down hatchways, struck with belaying-pins, 
made to toe the seam on small provocation or 
on no provocation at all. The old-fashioned 
sea-yarns of Captain Marryat ring true as far 
as they go, but they do not go far enough. 

In England the great frigates were gener- 
ally both under-manned and badly victualled, 
and the cruises were long and sickening. The 
practice of medicine had not reached the dig- 
nity of the precise science it is to-day, and the 
surgeon's appliances were rude and roughly 
manipulated. Anaesthetics were unknown, and 
after the battles, the slaughter in which was 
sometimes terrific, many a poor chap was sent 
to his last account by unwise amputation or 
bad treatment after the operation. 

The water frequently became putrid, and 
this, with the lack of fresh vegetables and 
the over use of pork, brought on the disease 
called scurvy, which oftentimes wiped out en- 
tire crews in its deadly ravages. Every year 
thousands of men were carried off by it. A 

183 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

far greater number died from the effects of 
scurvy than from the enemy's fire. Lieutenant 
Kelly says that during the Seven Years' War 
but one thousand five hundred and twelve 
seamen and marines were killed, but one hun- 
dred and thirty-three thousand died of disease 
or were reported missing. Not until the be- 
ginning of this century was this dreadful evil 
ameliorated. 

The evils of impressment and the work of 
the crimp and his gang — so infamous in Eng- 
land — had no great vogue here, for the reason 
that, during our wars of 1776 and 181 2, the 
good seamen — coasters and fishermen, who 
had suffered most from the Lion — were only 
too anxious to find a berth on an American 
man-of-war, where they could do yeoman's 
service against their cruel oppressor. 

*' Keel-hauling" and the ''cat" were relics 
of the barbarism of the old English navy. 
Keel-hauling was an extreme punishment, for 
the unfortunate rarely, if ever, survived the 
ordeal. In brief, it consisted in sending the 
poor sailor-man on a voyage of discovery 
along the keel of the vessel. Trussed like a 
fowl, he was lowered over the bows of the 
ship and hauled along underneath her until 
he made his appearance at the stern, half or 

wholly drowned, and terribly cut all over the 

184 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

body by the sea-growth on the ship's bottom. 
He bled in every part from the cuts of the 
barnacles ; but " this was considered rather 
advantageous than otherwise, as the loss of 
blood restored the patient, if he were not 
quite drowned, and the consequence was that 
one out of three, it is said, have been known 
to recover from their enforced submarine ex- 
cursion." 

Think of it ! Recovery was not anticipated, 
but if the victim got well, the officer in com- 
mand made no objection ! Beside the bru- 
tality of these old English navy bullies a bar- 
barous Hottentot chief would be an angel of 
mercy. 

Flogging and the use of the cat were abol- 
ished in the American navy in 1805. This 
law meant the use of the cat-o'-nine tails as a 
regular punishment, but did not prohibit blows 
to enforce immediate obedience. Before that 
time it was a common practice for the punish- 
ment of minor offences as well as the more 
serious ones. 

Flogging in the old days was an affair of 

much ceremony on board men-of-war. The 

entire ship's company was piped on deck for 

the punishment, and the culprit, stripped to 

the waist, was brought to the mast. The 

boatswain's mate, cat in hand, stood by the 

18s 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

side of a suspended grating in the gangway, 
and the captain, officer of the deck, and the 
surgeon took their posts opposite him. The 
offence and the sentence were then read, and 
the stripes were administered on the bare back 
of the offender, a petty officer standing by to 
count the blows of the lash, while the doctor, 
with his hand on the victim's pulse, was ready 
to give the danger signal when absolutely 
necessary. 

The men bore it in different ways. The old 
hands gritted their teeth philosophically, but 
the younger men frequently shrieked in their 
agony as the pitiless lash wound itself around 
the tender flesh, raising at first livid red welts, 
and afterwards lacerating the flesh and tearing 
the back into bloody seams. 

The effect upon the lookers-on was varied. 
The younger officers, newly come from well- 
ordered English homes, frequently fainted at 
the sight. But the horror of the spectacle 
soon died away, and before many weeks had 
passed, with hardened looks, they stood on the 
quarter-deck and watched the performance 
amusedly. Soon the spectacle got to be a 
part of their life, and the jokes were many 
and the laughter loud at the victim's expense. 
The greater the suffering the more pleasura- 
ble the excitement. 

i86 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

Many yarns are spun of Jack's tricks to 
avoid the lash or to reduce to a minimum the 
pain of the blows. Sometimes the men had 
their flogging served to them regularly, but 
in small doses. To these the punishment lost 
its rigor. For the boatswain's mate not infre- 
quently disguised the force of his blows, which 
came lightly enough, though the victim bawled 
vigorously to keep up the deception, and in 
the "three- and four-dozen" cases he some- 
times tempered his blows to the physical con- 
dition of the sufferers, who otherwise would 
have swooned with the pain. 

One Jacky, who thought himself wiser than 
his fellows, in order to escape his next dozen, 
had a picture of a crucifix tattooed over the 
whole surface of his back, and under it a 
legend, which intimated that blows upon the 
image would be a sacrilege. When next he 
was brought before the mast he showed it to 
the boatswain and his captain. The captain, 
a crusty barnacle of the old harsh school, smiled 
grimly. 

''Don't desecrate the picture, bos'n," he 
said; ''we will respect this man's religious 
scruples. You may put on his shirt," he said, 
chuckling to himself, "but remove his trousers, 
bos'n, and give him a dozen extra. And lay 

them on religiously, bos'n." 

187 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

All this was in the older days, and it was 
never so bad in the American as in the Eng- 
lish navy. The middle period of the Ameri- 
can navy, from before the Civil War to the age 
of iron and steel cruisers, presents an entirely 
different aspect in some ways. 

Illegal punishments were still inflicted, for 
there were always then, as now, a certain per- 
centage of ruffians forward who were amena- 
ble to no discipline, and could be managed 
only by meeting them with their own weapons. 
The *' spread-eagle" and the ride on the ''gray 
mare" were still resorted to to compel obe- 
dience. 

They ''spread-eagled" a man by tricing him 
up inside the rigging, taut lines holding his 
arms and legs outstretched to the farthest 
shrouds, a bight of rope passed around his 
body preventing too great a strain. He 
was gagged, and so he could not answer 
back. 

The " gray mare" on which the obstreperous 
were forced to gallop was the spanker-boom — 
the long spar that extends far over the water 
at the ship's stern. By casting loose the sheets, 
the boom rolled briskly from side to side, and 
the lonely horseman was forced in this peril- 
ous position to hold himself by digging his 
nails into the soft wood or swinging to any of 




THE SMOKING HOUR 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

the gear that flew into his reach. At best it 
was not a safe saddle, and a rough sea made 
it worse than a bucking broncho. 

Paul Jones had a neat way of disciplining 
his midshipmen aloft. He would go to the 
rail himself, and casting loose the halyards, 
let the yard go down with a run, to the young 
gentleman's great discomfiture. 

But the life of the old salt was not all bitter- 
ness. It was not all shore-leave, but there 
was skittles now and then for the deserving 
and good-conduct men. Jack's pleasures were 
simple, as they are to-day. There was never 
a crew that did not have its merry chanter and 
its flute, fiddle, or guitar, or the twice-told tale 
of the ship's Methuselah to entertain the dog- 
watches of the evening or the smoking-hour 
and make a break in the dreary monotony of 
routine. 

On public holidays, when everything was 
snug at sea or In port, a glorious skylark was 
the order of the afternoon. At the call of the 
bos'n's mate, '' All hands frolic," rigorous dis- 
cipline was suspended, and the men turned to 
with a will to make the day one to be talked 
about. Mast-head- races, potato- and sack- 
races, climbing the greased pole, and rough 
horse-play and man-handling filled the after- 
noon until hammocks were piped down and 

189 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

the watch was set. Purses from the wardroom 
and prizes of rum and tobacco — luxuries dear 
to Jack's heart — were the incentives to vigor- 
ous athletics and rough buffoonery. The rig- 
ging was filled from netting to top with the 
rough, jesting figures, and cheer upon cheer 
and laugh upon laugh greeted a successful 
bout or fortunate sally. 

Jack is a child at the best of times and at 
the worst, and he takes his pleasures with the 
zest of a boy of seven, laughing and making 
merry until he falls to the deck from very 
weariness. And woe be at these merry times 
to the shipmate who has no sense of humor. 
His day is a hideous one, for he is hazed and 
bullied until he is forced in self-defence to 
seek the seclusion granted by the nethermost 
part of the hold. A practical joker always, 
when discipline is lax, Jack's boisterous humor 
knows no restraint. 

The ceremony of ''crossing the line," the 
boarding of the ship by Neptune and his 
court, seems almost as old as ships, and is 
honored even to-day, when much of the ro- 
mantic seems to have passed out of sea-life. 
It is the time when the deep-sea sailor has the 
better of his cousin of the coasts. Every man 
who crossed the equator for the first time had 

to pay due honor to the god of the seas. 

190 




NEPTUNE COMES ABOARD 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

They exacted it, too, among the whalers when 
they crossed the Arctic Circle. 

The wardroom usually bought off in rum, 
money, or tobacco, but forward it was the 
roughest kind of rough man-handling ; and the 
victims were happy indeed when they got their 
deep-water credentials. The details of pro- 
cedure in this remarkable rite differed some- 
what on different ships, but the essential ele- 
ments of play and torture were the same in 
all cases. 

The day before the line was to be reached 
both wardroom and forecastle would receive 
a manifesto settinof forth the intention of the 
god of the seas to honor their poor craft and 
ordering all those who had not paid tribute to 
him to gather forward to greet him as he came 
over the side. At the hour appointed there 
was a commotion forward, and a figure, wear- 
ing a pasteboard crown that surmounted a 
genial red face adorned with oakum whiskers, 
made its appearance over the windward net- 
tings and proclaimed its identity as Neptune. 
Behind him was a motley crew in costumes of 
any kind and all kinds — or no kind — who had 
girded itself for this ungentle art of bull-bait- 
ing. The deep-water men intended to have 
an ample return for what they themselves 

had suffered, not many years back, when they 

191 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

had rounded the Horn or Cape of Good 
Hope. 

The unfortunates, stripped to the waist, 
were brought forward, one by one, to be put 
through their paces. After a mock trial by 
the jury of buffoons, the king ordered their 
punishment meted out in doses proportioned 
directly to the popularity of the victims as 
shipmates. The old long boat, with thwarts 
removed and a canvas lining, served as a 
ducking-pond. After vigorous applications, 
of ''slush," — which is another name for ship's 
grease, — or perhaps a toss in a hammock or a 
blanket, they were pitched backward into the 
pool and given a thorough sousing, emerging 
somewhat the worse for wear, but happy that 
the business was finally done for good and all. 

To-day the roughest sort of bullying no 
longer takes place, and much of the romance 
seems to have passed out of the custom. 

The punishments, too, have lost their se- 
verity. The "gray mare" swings to an empty 
saddle, the " spread eagle" is a thing of the 
past, and the '' cat" is looked upon as a rehc 
of barbarism. Things are not yet Pinafore- 
like, but the cursing and man-handling are not 
what they used to be. There are a few of the 
old-timers who still believe the '' cat" a neces- 
sary evil, and would like to see an occasional 

192 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

*' spread eagle," but the more moderate pun- 
ishments of to-day have proved, save in a few 
hardened cases, that much may be done if the 
morale of the service is high. 

The fact of the matter is, that the standard 
of the man behind the gun has kept up with 
the marvellous advance of the ships and the 
ordnance. To-day, the naval service of the 
United States is worthy of any seaman's metal. 
As a mode of living, sea-faring on American 
men-of-war attracts as many good men as any 
other trade. Machinists, electricians, carpen- 
ters, gunners, and sail-makers, all have the 
chance of a good living, with prizes for the 
honest and industrious. 

The seaman himself, in times of peace, may 
rise by faithful service to a competency and a 
retiring pension more generous than that of 
any other nation in the world. The discipline 
is the discipline of right relations between su- 
perior and inferior men of sense, and the arti- 
cles of war govern as rigorously the cabin as 
the forecastle. Republican principles are car- 
ried out, as far as they are compatible with 
perfect subordination, and there exists no feel- 
ing between the parts of the ship, except in 
extraordinary instances, but wholesome re- 
spect and convention. There is little tyranny 
on the one side or insubordination on the other. 
'3 193 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

The training of the young officer of the old 
navy was the training of the larger school of 
the world. ''Least squares" and "ballistics" 
were not for him. He could muster a watch, 
bend and set a stun' sail, work out a traverse, 
and pass a weather-earing ; but he toyed not 
with the higher mathematics, like the machine- 
made "young gentleman" of to-day. What 
he knew of navigation he had picked hap- 
hazard, as best he might. 

At the age of twelve his career usually 
opened briskly in the thunder of a hurricane 
or the slaughter of a battle, under conditions 
trying to the souls of bronzed, bearded men. 
Physical and even mental training of a certain 
kind he had, but the intellectual development 
of modern days was missing. The American 
officer of the days before the Naval Academy 
was founded was the result of rough condi- 
tions that Nature shaped to her own ends with 
the only tools she had. Though these "boys" 
had not the beautiful theory of the thing, they 
had its practice, and no better seamen ever 
lived. 

At the beginning of the century, the crusty 
Preble, commodore of the blockading fleet 
before Tripoli, was sent a consignment of 
these "boys" to aid him in his work. The 

names of the "boys" were Decatur, Stewart, 

194 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

Macdonough, Lawrence, and Perry. Except- 
ing Decatur, who was twenty-six, there was 
not one who was over twenty-four, and two 
or three of them were under twenty. The 
commodore grew red in the face and swore 
mighty oaths when he thought of the things he 
had to accompHsh with the youngsters under 
his command. But he found before long that 
though youth might be inconvenient, it could 
not be considered as a reproach in their case. 

Decatur, with a volunteer crew, went under 
the guns at Tripoli, captured and blew up the 
'' Philadelphia" in a way that paled all deeds 
of gallantry done before or since. The dreamy 
Somers went in with a fire-ship and destroyed 
both the shipping and himself. In the hand-to- 
hand fights on the gunboats, Lawrence, young 
Bainbridge, Stewart, and the others fought 
and defeated the best hand-to-hand fighters 
of the Mediterranean. The Dey of Algiers, 
when Decatur came before him to make terms 
of peace, stroked his black beard and looked 
at the young hero curiously. ''Why," he said, 
''do they send over these young boys to treat 
with the older Powers ?" 

When the war was over, Preble no longer 
grew red in the face or swore. He loved 
his school-boys, and walked his quarter-deck 
with them arm-in-arm. And they loved him 

195 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

for his very crustiness, for they knew that back 
of it all was a man. 

These youthful heroes were not the only 
ones. Young Farragut, an infant of twelve 
years, with an old " Shoot-if-you' re-lucky," 
quelled a promising mutiny. At eighteen 
Bainbridge did the same. Farragut, at thir- 
teen, was recommended for promotion to a 
lieutenancy he was too young to take. Perry 
was about thirty when he won the victory of 
Erie. 

A youngster s character bears a certain defi- 
nite relation to the times he lives in. Skies 
blue and breezes light, he shapes his life's 
course with no cares but the betterment of his 
mental condition. Baffling winds create the 
sailor, and storm and stress bring out his 
greater capabilities. The Spanish war has 
proved that heroes only slumber, and that the 
young gentleman with the finely-tempered 
mind of an Annapolis training is capable of 
the great things his father did. 

The blue-jacket of to-day has plenty of hard 
work to do, but he is as comfortable as good 
food and sleeping accommodations, regular 
habits, and good government can make him. 
As a class, the United States Jacky is more 
contented, perhaps, than any other man of 

similar conditions. Unlike the soldier, he does 

196 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

not even have to rough it very much, for 
wherever he goes he takes his house with 
him. 

Jacky sleeps in a hammock strung upon 
hooks to the beams of the deck above him. 
When he turns out, he lashes his hammock 
with its lashing, and stores it in the net- 
tings, — the troughs for the purpose at the 
sides of the ship, — where it must stay until 
night. If Jack wants to sleep in the mean- 
while, he chooses the softest spot he can find 
on a steel-clad deck ; and he can sleep there, 
too, in the broad glare of daylight, a hundred 
feet passing him, and the usual run of ship's 
calls and noises droning in his ears. 

Jacky' s food is provided by the government, 
while his superior of the wardroom has to pay 
his own mess-bill. He is allowed, in addition 
to his pay, the sum of nine dollars per month, 
and this must purchase everything, except such 
luxuries as he may choose to buy from his 
pay. The ship's paymaster is allowed a cer- 
tain amount of money to furnish the supplies, 
and between him and the ship's cook the prob- 
lem is settled. At the end of the month, if the 
amount served out is in excess of the compu- 
tation for rations, the brunt falls upon the 
" Jack-of-the-Dust," — the assistant to the pay- 
master's yeoman, — who has the work of accu- 

197 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

rately measuring the rations which are given to 
the cook of the ship. 

The ship's cook receives from the govern- 
ment from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars a 
month, according to the size of the ship, and, 
in addition, certain money perquisites from the 
different messes, which gives him a fair aver- 
age. He has complete charge of the ship's 
galley and the cooks of the messes, and must 
be able to concoct a dainty French dish for 
the wardroom as well as the usual *'salt horse" 
or ''dog" for the Jacky. 

'* Salt horse" is the sea-name for pork. 
'' Dog" is soaked hardtack, mixed with mo- 
lasses and fried ; and, though it is not pleasant 
twenty-nine days out of the month, it is health- 
ful, and tastes good to a hard-working sailor 
with the salt of the sea producing a splendid 
appetite. 

The mess-tables hang by iron supports to 
the beams of the deck above, and when the 
mess has been served and eaten, — as only 
Jack knows how to eat, — they are triced up 
into their places, and all is cleaned and made 
ship-shape in the twinkling of an eye. A half- 
hour is allowed for dinner, and this time is 
kept sacred for Jack's use. A red pennant 
flies from the yard-arm, that all may know 

that the sailor-man is eating and must not 

198 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

be disturbed by any importunate or curious 
callers. 

In the dog-watches of the evening, after 
supper, from six to eight p.m., the blue-jacket 
is given his leisure. It is then that pipes are 
smoked, vigilance relaxed, boxing and wrest- 
ling bouts are in order, and Jacky settles down 
for his rest after the day of labor. From some- 
where down on the gun-deck comes the tinkle 
of a guitar or banjo, and a tuneful, manly voice 
sings the songs of France or Spain, and, 
better still, of beloved America, for the ship- 
mates. 

The sailor of to-day is also a soldier. Back 
in the days of Henry the Eighth, when Eng- 
land first had a navy, the sailors only worked 
the ships. The fighting was done by the sol- 
diers. Later, when the ships were armed with 
many guns and carried a greater spread of 
canvas, there was no space for great compa- 
nies of soldiers, and the sailors became gun- 
ners as well. A few soldiers there were, but 
these did only sentry duty and performed the 
duties of the ships' s police. As such they 
were cordially hated by the jackies. 

This antipathy has come down through the 
ages to the present day, and marines are still 
looked on by the sailor-men as land-lubbers 

and Johnnies — sea-people who have no mission 

199 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

upon the earth save to do all the eating and 
very little of the rough work. 

The new navy has done much to change this 
feeling. The mission of the marine is now a 
definite one. Always used as a sharpshooter, 
he now mans the rapid-fire batteries, and even 
guns of a larger caliber. He has done his 
work well, and the affair at Guantanamo has 
caused the sneer to fade from the lip of the 
American sailor-man. Two of the ablest cap- 
tains of our navy, always the deadliest oppo- 
nents of the marine corps, upon assuming 
their latest commands, applied immediately 
for the largest complement of marines that 
they could get. 

Any ship, old or new, is as frail as the crew 

that mans it. The strength of any vessel varies 

directly with its discipline and personnel. Hull, 

Jones, Decatur, Bainbridge, and Stewart, in the 

old days, knew with some accuracy the forces 

they had to reckon with. Their guns were of 

simple contrivance, and their men knew them 

as well as they knew how to reef a topsail or 

smartly pass a weather-earing. They feared 

nothing so long as they were confident of their 

captain. New and mysterious contrivances 

for death-dealing were unknown to them, and 

hence the morale of the old sea-battles was 

the morale only of strength and discipline. 

200 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

There were no uncertain factors to reckon 
with, save the weight of metal and the com- 
parative training of the gun-crews. 

To-day the unknown plays a large part in 
warfare. Intricate appliances, mysterious in- 
ventions, new types of torpedo-boats, and sub- 
marine vessels form a new element to contend 
against and have a personal moral influence 
upon the discipline of crews. To combat this 
new element of the unknown and uncertain 
has required sailors and men of a different 
stripe from the old. Where, in the old days, 
ignorance and all its accompanying evils held 
sway over the mind of poor Jack, and made 
him a prey to superstition and imagination, to- 
day, by dint of careful training of brain as well 
as body, he has become a thinking creature of 
power and force of mind. He knows in a 
general way the working of the great mechan- 
ical contrivances ; and in the fiorhts that are to 
come, as well as those that have been, he will 
show that the metal the American Jacky is 
made of rings true and stands well the trial 
by fire. 



20I 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

THE OLD SHIPS AND THE NEW 

With much hitching of trousers and shifting 
of quid, the old longshoreman will tell you that 
sea-life isn't at all what it once was. 

He will gaze out to sea, where the great 
iron machines are plying back and forth, and 
a reminiscent sparkle will come into his eyes 
as he turns to his lobster-pots and tells you 
how it was in the good days of clippers and 
sailing-frigates, when sailor-men were sailor- 
men and not boiler-room swabs, machine-made 
and steam-soaked. He will also yarn, with 
much d — ning of his eyes (and yours), of how 
fair it was in the deck-watches of the "Saucy 
Sally" barque, with everything drawing alow 
and aloft, grog and 'baccy a-plenty, and never a 
care but the hurry to spend the voyage-money. 
And not till he's mumbled all his discontent will 
he haul his sheets and give you right-of-way. 

He forgets, sheer hulk that he is, that he's 
been in dry-dock a generation or more and 
that swift-moving Time has loosed his gear 
and dimmed his binnacle-lights. Despite his 
ancient croaking, tricks at the wheel are to- 
day as ably kept, eyes as sharp as his still 
peer into the dimness over the forecastle, and 
the sea-lead takes as long a heave as in the 

early sixties, when he hauled up to New York 

202 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

with a thousand dollars in prize-money and a 
heart full for the business of spending it. It 
has always been so. There has never been an 
age that has not had its carper to tell you of 
the wonders that once were. 

Yet it was truly beautiful. With the tide 
on the ebb and the wind a-piping free, never 
was a fairer sight than the Atlantic clipper as 
she picked her speedy way through the ship- 
ping to the harbor's mouth ; and nothing so 
stately as the gallant frigate in her wake, with 
all sail set to ga'n's'ls, her topsails bellying 
grandly to the quartering breeze, which whipped 
the filmy wave-tops against her broad bows, 
under which the yellow curl lapped merrily its 
greeting. The harbor clear and the capes 
abeam, aloft flew the nimble sail-loosers. The 
royals and the stu'n-sails flapped to the freshen- 
ing wind, sheets went home with a run, and 
the yards flew to their blocks. 

Then, her departure taken, like a gull she 
sped blithely on her course. The rays of the 
afternoon sun gilded her snowy canvases until 
she looked a thing of air and fairyland, not of 
reality. On she flew, her tall spars dipping 
grandly to the swells — a stately farewell cour- 
tesy to the clipper, hull down to leeward. On 
the decks the boatswain piped his cheerful 

note, and everything came ship-shape and 

203 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

Bristol-fashion for the cruise. The running- 
gear was neatly coiled for running, the guns 
secured for sea, and the watches told off The 
officer of the deck walked to and fro, singing 
softly to himself, casting now and then a care- 
ful eye aloft to the weather-leeches, which 
quivered like an aspen as the helmsman, lean- 
ing to the slant of the deck, kept her well up 
to her work. 

And yet the poetry has not gone out of it 
all. The poetry of the sailing-frigate was 
lyric. That of the steel battle-ship is Ho- 
meric. 

Nothing save a war of the elements has the 
power of a battle-ship in action. Ten thou- 
sand tons of steel, — a mighty fortress churning 
speedily through the water fills the spirit with 
wonder at the works of man and makes any 
engine for his destruction a possibility. Away 
down below the water-line a score or more 
of furnaces, white-heated, roar furiously under 
the forced draught, and the monster engines 
move their ponderous arms majestically, and 
in rhythm and harmony mask their awful 
strength. Before the furnace-doors, black- 
ened, half-naked stokers move, silhouetted 
against the crimson glare, like grim phantoms 
of the Shades. The iron uprights and tools 

are hot to their touch, the purple gases hiss 

204 



f> 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

and sputter in their very faces, yet still they 
toil on, gasping for breath, their tongues 
cleaving to their mouths, and their wet bodies 
steaming in the heat of it. 

The deck above gives no sign of the strug- 
gle below. Where, in the old days, the so- 
norous trumpet rang out and the spar-deck 
was alive with the watch who hurried to the 
pin-rail at the frequent call, now all is quiet. 
Here and there bright work is polished, or a 
lookout passes a cheery call, but nothing save 
the man at the wheel and the officer of the 
watch shows the actual working of the ship. 

Seamanship, in the sense of sail-handling, 
is a thing of the past. Though there is no 
officer in the navy who could not in an emer- 
gency handle a square-rigger with the science 
of an old sea-captain, the man on the bridge 
has now come to be first a tactician and after 
that a master of steam and electricity. 

In the sea-battles of 1812 the captain was 
here, there, and everywhere in the thickest of 
the fight, inspiring by his personal magnetism 
the men at the guns. He was the soul of his 
ship. To-day the sea-battle is a one-man bat- 
tle. The captain is still the heart and soul of 
the ship, but his ends are accomplished in a 
less personal way. His men need not see 

him. By the touch of a finger he can perform 

205 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

every action necessary to carry his ship to vic- 
tory. He can see everything, do everything, 
and make his presence everywhere felt by the 
mere operation of a set of electrical instru- 
ments in front of him. 

The intricacies of his position are, in a way, 
increased. He may lose a boiler, split a crank, 
or break an electrical connection, but the beau- 
tiful subtleties of old-fashioned seamanship 
have no place whatever on the modern war- 
ship. 

Let it not be understood that the handling 
of the great ocean fortress of to-day may be 
mastered by any save a craftsman of the art. 
With plenty of sea-room and a keen watch 
alow and aloft the trick is a simple one, for 
the monster is only a speck in the infinity of 
sea and sky, and there is never a fear save for a 
blow, or a ship, or a shore. But in close ma- 
noeuvre, or in harbor, the problem is different. 
Ten thousand tons of bulk cannot be turned 
and twisted on the heel with the swish and 
toss of the wieldy clipper. Observant trans- 
pontine voyagers, who have watched the gi- 
gantic liner warped out from her pier into a 
swift tide-way with a leeward ebb, will tell you 
what a complicated and difficult thing it seems 
to be. 

The captain of the battle-ship must be all 

206 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

that the merchant captain is, and more besides. 
Mooring and slipping moorings should be an 
open book to the naval officer, but his higher 
studies, the deeper intricacies of the science of 
war, are mysteries for the merchant captain. 
All of it is seamanship, of course. But to-day 
it is the seamanship of the bridled elements, 
where strength is met by strength and steam 
and iron make wind and wave as nothing. 

The perfection of the seamanship of the 
past was not in strength, but in yielding, and 
the saltiest sea-captain was he who cajoled 
both ship and sea to his bidding. The wind 
and waves, they say, are always on the side of 
the ablest navigators, but it was rather a mys- 
terious and subtle knowledge of the habits and 
humors of God's sea and sky, and a sympathy 
born of constant communion, which made both 
ship and captain a part of the elements about 
them, and turned them into servants, and not 
masters. 

The naval captains of 1 8 1 2 had learned this 
freemasonry of sea and sky, and one incident 
— a typical one — will show it as no mere words 
can do. Its characteristics are Yankee pluck 
and old-fashioned Yankee seamanship. 

The frigate '' Constitution" — of glorious 
memory — in 181 2 gave the British squad- 
ron which surrounded her startling proof of 

207 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

the niceties of Yankee seamanship. There 
never has been a race for such a stake, and 
never will be. Had ''Old Ironsides" been 
captured, there is no telling what would have 
been the deadly effect on the American for- 
tunes It was the race for the life of a nation. 

The ''Constitution" was the country's hope 
and pride, and Captain Hull knew it. He felt 
that " Old Ironsides" could never fail to do the 
work required of her. So for four days and 
nights the old man towed her along, the Brit- 
ish frigates just out of range, until he showed 
clean heels to the entire squadron. The inge- 
nuity and deft manoeuvring of the chase has 
no parallel in the history of this or any other 
country in the world. 

With hardly a catspaw of wind, Hull drifted 
into sight of the British fleet off the Jersey 
coast. Before he knew it, they brought the 
wind up with them, and his position was des- 
perate. There were four frigates and a ship- 
of-the-line spread out in a way to take advan- 
tage of any breath of air. Hull called away 
his boats, and running lines to them, sent them 
ahead to tow her as best they might. The 
British did still better, for they concentrated 
the boats of the squadron on two ships, and 
gained rapidly on the American. Hull cut 

ports over the stern, and ran two 1 8-pounders 

208 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

out of his cabin windows, where he began 
a continuous fire on the enemy. The British 
ships shifted their helms and took up posi- 
tions on the quarters of the frigate, unable 
to approach too closely with their boats for 
fear of the ''Constitution's" stern-guns, which 
dropped their hurtling shot under their very 
bows. 

The desperate game had only begun. Hull, 
finding that he had but one hundred and fifty 
feet of water under him, decided to kedge her 
along. In a few minutes the largest boat was 
rowing away ahead with a small anchor on 
board, stretching out half a mile of cable. The 
anchor dropped, the men hauled in roundly 
and walked away with the line at a smart pace. 
It was heart-breaking work, but the speed of 
the ship was trebled. By the time the vessel 
was warped up to the first anchor another one 
was ready for her, and she clawed still further 
out of the enemy's reach. The British did not 
at first discover the magic headway of the 
American, and not for some time did they 
attempt to follow suit. 

Then a breeze came up. Hull hauled his 
yards to it, picked up his boats without slack- 
ing sail, and went ahead. But hardly were 
the sails drawing when the wind died away 

again. One of the ships came into range, 

14 209 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

and there was nothing for it but to go back to 
the kedging. Three times did this occur, the 
captain, with his eye on the dog-vane, jockey- 
ing her along as a skipper would his racing- 
yacht. The men had now been at their quar- 
ters for thirty-six hours without rest or sleep. 
But at die order they dropped into the boats 
again, ready for anything. 

Another breeze sprang up now and held for 
two hours. Like logs the sailor-men tumbled 
over on the decks, nearly dead for lack of 
sleep. On the afternoon of the third day of 
the chase the " Constitution" lost the wind and 
the enemy kept it. Back again to kedging 
they went, weary and sick at heart. 

But relief was in sight. A great cloud hove 
up on the southeastern horizon, and the black 
squall that followed was a Godsend to the 
'' Constitution" and her weary crew. Hull 
knew the Englishmen would not like the looks 
of the squall. No more did he. But he kept 
his boats at the towing, nevertheless. 

He stationed his men at the halyards and 
down-hauls, and had everything in hand for 
the shock. He calmly watched the on-coming 
line of froth, growing whiter every minute, 
while his officers came to him and begged him 
to take in his sail. But wait he did until the 
first breath stirred his royals. Then the shrill 

2IO 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

pipe of the boatswain called the boats along- 
side of the " Constitution." 

They were not a moment too soon. As the 
men were hooking the tackles the blast struck 
the ship. Over she heeled, almost on her beam 
ends, the boats tossed up like feather-weights. 
The yards came down with a rush, and the 
sails flew up to the quarter-blocks, though the 
wind seemed likely to blow them out of the 
bolt-ropes. She righted herself in a moment, 
though, and so cleverly had Hull watched his 
time that not a boat was lost. 

Among the enemy all was disorganization. 
Every sail was furled, and some of their boats 
went adrift. Then, as the friendly rain and 
mist came down, the wily Yankee spread his 
sails — not even furled — and sailed away on an 
easy bowline at nine knots an hour. 

The race was won. Before the Englishmen 
could recover, Hull managed by wetting his 
sails to make them hold the wind, and soon 
the enemy was but a blur on his western hori- 
zon. Then the British gave it up. 

The superiority of Yankee seamanship was 
never more marked than in this chase. The 
British had the wind, the advantage of position, 
the force, and lacked only the wonderful skill 
and indomitable perseverance of the American, 
who, with everything against him, never for a 

211 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

moment despaired of pulling gallant '' Old 
Ironsides" out of the reach of his slow-moving 
enemy. 

The difficult manoeuvre of picking up his 
boats without backing a yard or easing a 
sheet he repeated again and again, to the 
wonderment of his adversaries, whose at- 
tempts in this direction failed every time they 
tried it in a smart breeze. Hull's tactics at 
the coming of the squall were hazardous, and 
under any other circumstances would have 
been suicidal. For a skipper to have his 
boats two cable-lengths away from his ship, 
with his royals flapping to the first shock of a 
squall. Is bad seamanship. But if tackles are 
hooked and men are safe aboard there is no 
marine feat like it. 

The naval history of this country is full of 
such instances. Captain Charles Stewart, on 
the same ship, did a wonderful thing. In his 
fight with the '' Cyane" and the ''Levant" he 
delivered a broadside from both batteries at 
the same time. Then, shifting his helm under 
cover of the smoke, he backed his topsails and 
drew out stern ward from the enemy's fire, 
taking a new position, and delivering another 
broadside, which brought about their surrender. 

The war-ship of fifty years ago was as dif- 
ferent from the battle-ship of to-day as a cara- 

212 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

vel from a torpedo-boat. With half the length 
and a third the tonnage, the old '' ship-of-the- 
line" had three times as many men as the 
modern sea-fighter. Yet, with a thousand men 
aboard, she had work for them all. More than 
two acres of canvas were to be handled, and 
over a hundred guns were to be served, loaded, 
and fired. A thousand pieces of running-gear 
*were to be rove and manned. The huge top- 
sails, weighing, with their yards, many tons, 
needed on their halyards half a hundred men. 
Great anchors were to be broken from their 
sandy holds, and the capstan-bars, dou*ble- 
banked, hove around to the sound of the merry 
chantey and deep-voiced trumpet. Homeward 
bound, the business of anchor-hoisting turned 
into a mad scene, and many a rude jest and 
hoarse song turned the crowded fo'c's'le into 
a carnival of jollity. 

In matters of routine and traininof the crews 
of the American frio^ates differed little from 
those of England. The sailor-men of the 
United States, though newer to the work of 
navigating the big ships, were smart seamen, 
and could cross or bring down their light yards, 
send down their masts, or clear for action with 
the oldest and very best of England's men-o'- 
war's-men. 

The ships themselves differed little in gen- 

213 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

eral construction. During the war of 1812, 
of large frigates we possessed but the " Con- 
stitution," the "President," and the ''Constel- 
lation." Though built upon models patterned 
after the accepted standards of the period, 
they were somewhat smaller than the British 
vessels and usually carried a lighter armament. 
Their unbroken list of victories during the war 
with Enorland is remarkable when one con- 
siders what the young nation was contending 
against, both at home and abroad, and how 
little aid Congress had given the infant navy. 

It seems really wonderful how a large body 
of men, numbering from three hundred to six 
hundred, and later a thousand or more, could 
find comfort and a home from one year's end 
to another in a space only two hundred feet 
long and fifty feet wide. 

But Jack is nowhere so comfortable as aboard 
ship. He is used to prescribed limits, and 
crawls into his hammock at night happy that 
the space is no greater. There Is a com- 
panionship, he thinks, in close quarters, and he 
likes them. 

In the old ships it was a matter of great 
importance to provide comfortable quarters 
for the great crews they were obliged to carry. 
In England, during the first years of the cen- 
tury, the complement of a "Seventy-four" was 

214 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

five hundred and ninety, and even six hundred 
and forty men. Hammocks seem to have 
been used during the reign of Queen Eliza- 
beth, when they were called **nets," probably 
because they were made of rope-yarn. 

The officers were then, as now, given the 
after part of the ship. A wooden bulkhead 
separated the cabins of the officers from the 
main-decks, where the men lived, though when 
the ship was cleared for action the bulkheads 
were taken down and all movable property 
both of officer and man was taken below-deck. 

This gave a clean sweep of the deck from 
bow to stern. The steerage had from two to 
six broadside-guns in it, and even the captain 
had to live with a couple of brass stern-chasers 
and a broadsider or two. 

The grandest line-of-battle-shlp ever built 
for this country was the old " Pennsylvania." 
She was made of wood throughout, two hun- 
dred and twenty feet long and fifty-eight feet 
beam, with a draft of twenty-five feet of water 
and thirty-five hundred tons displacement, — 
just one-third of that of the modern " Iowa." 
Eleven hundred men could swing their ham- 
mocks on her wide decks, where no modern 
gun-carriages or steel compartments broke the 
long sweep from the cabin forward. Her sides 
were of oak, with a thickness of eighteen inches 

215 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

at the upper gunports and thirty- two inches at 
the water-Hne, almost heavy enough at long 
range to resist the shot of a modern rifle. 
Her sixteen inches were proof against her own 
fire at a mile. On her three fighting-decks 
she carried sixteen 8-inch guns, the heaviest 
they had in those days, and one hundred and 
four 32-pounders. Her mainmast was over 
two hundred feet long, and with all sail set 
she could leg it at twelve knots an hour. 

But compare her with the modern "Indi- 
ana." The " Pennsylvania" weighed less than 
the armor of the " Indiana" alone. The " Indi- 
ana" has but sixteen guns, against one hun- 
dred and twenty on the ''Pennsylvania;" but 
that broadside can send two tons of tempered 
steel at a single discharge. The old 8-inch 
guns of the " Pennsylvania" could send a 
shell through fifteen inches of oak at a dis- 
tance of a mile — the equivalent of half an inch 
of steel. 

The range of a modern rifle is from five to 
twelve miles ; the penetration is almost any- 
thing you please in the way of steel armor. 
The '' Pennsylvania's" shells at point-blank 
range would hardly make a perceptible dent 
in the "Indiana's" steel armor, and the old 
cast-iron shot would roll harmlessly down the 

new ship's sides. But one explosive shell 

216 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

from the "Indiana" would go through the 
** Pennsylvania" from stem to stern, and would 
splinter and burn her beyond repair. 

The ''Pennsylvania" cost the government, 
in 1837, nearly seven hundred thousand dol- 
lars ; a fabulous sum for a battle-ship In those 
days. The ''Indiana" cost three millions and 
a half, — only two hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars less than the sum paid for that vast 
territory bought from Napoleon, and known 
as the "Louisiana Purchase," and about half 
the sum paid for the acquisition of Alaska 
from Russia. 

The statistics are interesting. According to 
official authority, in putting this vessel together 
seven hundred tons of rivets alone were used. 
About four hundred plans were made for the 
hull and about two hundred and fifty plans 
and drawings were made for the engines. 
These would take a force of one hundred men 
a year to complete. 

The engines and machinery alone weigh 

about nine hundred tons. The smoke-stacks 

are about sixteen feet in diameter. Each of 

the main engines is so enormous that under 

the great frames, in the economy of space and 

construction, are two smaller engines, the sole 

mission of which is to start the big ones. 

There are about sixty-six separate engines 

217 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

for various purposes. The condensing-tubes, 
placed end to end, would cover a distance of 
twelve miles. Thirty tons of water fill her 
boilers, which would stand a pressure of one 
hundred and sixty pounds to the square inch. 
Three dynamos provide the electricity, — a plant 
which would liofht a town of five thousand in- 
habitants. There are twenty-one complete 
sets of speaking-tubes and twenty-four tele- 
phone stations. 

The two great turrets are clad with nineteen 
inches of toughened steel. In each of these 
turrets are two 13-inch guns. Each of these 
guns is about fifty feet long and weighs sixty- 
one tons. There are eight 8-inch guns on the 
superstructure, in sets of twos, and amidships 
on the main-deck are four 6-inch rifles. In 
ten minutes, firing each 13-inch gun once in 
two minutes, and using all the other guns at 
their full power, the " Indiana" could fire about 
sixty tons of death-dealing metal. 

The millennium has not yet been reached, 
but such awful force makes universal peace a 
possibility. What the immediate future holds 
forth in naval architecture and gunnery is a 
matter which excites some curiosity, for it 
almost seems as though perfection, according 
to the standard of the end of the century, has 

been reached. And yet we already know of 

21S 



THE PASSING OF THE OLD NAVY 

certain changes, improvements, and inventions, 
the direct outcome of the Spanish war, which 
are to be made on the vessels now contracted 
for, which affect importantly the government 
of the ship ; and so it may be that the next 
twenty years will show as great an evolution 
as have the two decades just past. 

But whatever the future may bring, it has 
been a marvellous and momentous change 
from the old navy to the new. Since the 
*' Monitor"-" Merrimac" fight no country has 
been quicker to profit by the lessons of the 
victory of iron over wood and steel over iron 
than the United States. 

But the navy that is, however glorious its 
achievements, can never dim the glory of the 
navy that was, though sailor-men, old and new, 
know that in a test of ship and ship, and man 
and man, the flag of this country will continue 
to fly triumphant. 



219 



FARRAGUT IN MOBILE BAY 

IT was Friday, the 5th of August, 1864. 
The first violet streaks of dawn stole 
through the purple clouds that the wind 
had tossed up during the night. Admiral 
Farragut sat in his cabin, quietly sipping his 
tea, his fleet-captain, Drayton, by his side. 
Through the open ports they could see the 
dim masses of the ships of the fleet as, lashed 
two and two, they stretched in a long line to 
seaward. The wind no longer blew, and the 
shrill pipes and the creaking of the blocks as 
the light yards came down echoed clearly 
across the silent water. 

" How is the wind, Drayton ?" said the ad- 
miral, at last. 

Drayton walked to the port. 

'* About west-sou'west, sir, I should say." 

The admiral smiled. 

'' A good omen. Our smoke will blow over 
their batteries.** 

He raised his cup, drained it, and set it back 
on its saucer. Then he rose to his feet and 
walked slowly up and down the cabin, looking 
first at his watch and then out through the 



220 



FARRAGUT IN MOBILE BAY 

starboard gallery, where the fleet lay. He 
turned, his genial face all aglow in the cool 
light of the morning, and reached to the table 
for his side-arms. 

The moment had arrived. 

"Well, Drayton," he said, ''we might as 
well get under weigh." 

Drayton knew, and Farragut knew, that the 
momentous day before them would decide the 
fate of the West Gulf and of the nation in 
the South. It was the supreme moment in 
the admiral's career. But as he clasped his 
sword-belt his hands were as firm as though 
on inspection. 

With a cheery "Aye, aye, sir," Drayton 
went out of the door and up the companion, 
and soon the deck above resounded with the 
nimble feet as the men sprang joyfully to 
quarters. Old Knowles, the quartermaster, 
deftly sent his little ball of bunting, ready for 
an hour, to the yard-arm, and in a moment the 
row of multi-colored flags, tipped with the glow 
of the brightened east, fluttered proudly out 
into the morning breeze. 

Then the bright answering pennants flew up 
from all the vessels of the fleet, and the black 
smoke poured from their dusky funnels as the 
white water churned up behind them on their 
way into line. 

221 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

The admiral, on the quarter-deck, glass in 
hand, saw the black turrets of the monitors, 
with their grim, shiny muzzles, drift slowly in- 
land towards the batteries, not a ripple show- 
ing behind them as they moved on their deadly 
mission towards the frowning battlements of 
Fort Morgan. Ahead of the '' Hartford" was 
the broad stern of the ''Brooklyn," as she 
churned her way slowly onward, her smoke 
drifting in great clouds over her starboard 
bow towards the water-batteries. Beside the 
admiral, one hand on the rail, was Drayton, 
cool as though on a practice drill, and as he 
looked over the swarthy backs that shone bare 
in the morning sun he knew well that the flag- 
ship would give a good account of herself 

Behind him stood Watson, Gates, McKinley, 
and Brownell, watching the progress of the 
monitors. The calmness of the scene was 
sublime. Only an occasional order to the 
tacklemen, given in a quiet voice by the gun- 
captains, showed the deadly work ahead. 

As the '' Hartford" drew into range, the 
admiral walked over to the main rigging and 
clambered up into the shrouds ; and his men 
below him at the batteries lovingly watched 
their "old man" as step by step he mounted 
to get a clearer view. They knew him for a 
gallant old sea-dog. They had seen him steam 

222 



FARRAGUT IN MOBILE BAY 

past the batteries at Vicksburg and Port Hud- 
son, and they smiled at his sternness at the 
capture of New Orleans, for they loved him. 
But at Mobile they learned that he feared 
nothing above the ocean or under it, if it 
stood in the way of the cause of his country. 
At this point Farragut stood a few feet above 
Jouett, on the wheel-house of the " Meta- 
comet" alongside, and could hail the top above 
him, where Freeman, his trusty pilot, gave him 
his soundings and bearings. 

At length the battle opened. A great puff 
of white smoke rolled along the water from 
the turret of the "Tecumseh," and a yellow 
cloud of dust above the water-batteries marked 
where the shot had struck. Fort Morgan im- 
mediately replied, and, as the gunners got the 
range, the angry splash of the shots as they 
skipped across the water came clearly to the 
crew of the ''Hartford," who stood at their 
guns silent and motionless. As the shots 
rained about them and great white splinters 
were torn from the nettinors and flew across 
the decks, they only looked up at their ad- 
miral, who, leaning slightly forward, was slowly 
scanning the breastworks. In his face there 
was no impatience, no irritation, no sign of 
anxiety, and while he could calmly wait, they 

could. The courage of the leader was re- 

223 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

fleeted In his men. It was the very perfection 
of human dIscIpHne. 

Would the order to fire never come? Al- 
ready a fragment of shell had struck a gun- 
captain in the breast, and they saw him carried 
past them, moaning piteously. A shot had 
struck the foremast, and a jagged splinter 
from the mainmast flew up and lodged in 
the rigging below where the admiral stood. 
They saw him take the glass from his eyes, 
and, turning towards Captain Drayton, hold 
up his hand. 

The guns, already trained, belched forth 
their iron greeting to the gunboats, and the 
battle was on in earnest. Calm before, the 
men were calmer now, and they went about 
their work as though at target practice. The 
powder-boys flew like sprites, and the gunners 
sponged and loaded with rapidity. It was as 
if each gun and its crew were parts of one 
mechanism. 

'' Steady, boys, steady. Left tackle a little. 
So! so!" 

And then came another broadside, followed 
by an eager cheer as the enemy were driven 
away from their water-battery. 

As the smoke from the broadsides increased 
and obscured his view, the admiral, ratline by 

ratline, ascended the rigging until he found 

224 




THE ADMIRAL LASHED TO THE RIGGING 



FARRAGUT IN MOBILE BAY 

himself partly above the futtock bands and 
holding on to the futtock shrouds. The watch- 
ful eye of Drayton saw him perched high up, 
all unconscious of himself, thinking only of the 
great movements about him. A shock, and 
he would be thrown into the sea. The cap- 
tain gave an order to Knowles, the quarter- 
master, who lay aloft briskly with a piece of 
lead-line. The admiral did not even see him, 
and only when Knowles passed the line around 
him did Farragut take his glasses down. 
" Never mind," said he, with a smile, "I'm all 
right." But the quartermaster lashed him, 
nevertheless, and lay below. 

Then from his lofty position the admiral 
saw a magnificent but terrible thing. The 
monitor "Tecumseh" was up well with the 
fort, and drawing slowly on, when, without a 
warning, a great column of water shot up 
under her starboard bow. She heeled over to 
port and went down with every soul on board. 
She had struck a torpedo. Captain Craven, in 
his eagerness to engage the "Tennessee" in 
battle, had passed to the west of the fatal buoy. 

This disaster was not immediately realized 
by the men. Some supposed the "Tennes- 
see" had been sunk, and cheer after cheer was 
taken up and echoed along the line. 

But the admiral knew the danger that was 

15 225 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

coming. His anxiety was not decreased when 
the '' Brooklyn," just ahead of him, suddenly 
stopped. The frown on his brows deepened, 
and loudly he hailed his pilot, Freeman, in the 
top, a few feet above him, — 

''What's the matter with the Brooklyn ?" he 
shouted. " She must have plenty of water 
there." 

Freeman's head appeared promptly at the 
lubber's hole. 

''Plenty and to spare, admiral," he an- 
swered. 

Then the admiral knew. Captain Alden had 
seen the "Tecumseh" go down, and the heavy 
line of torpedoes across the channel made him 
pause. The backing screw churned up the 
water, and the " Hartford" every moment was 
bearing down on her. The vessels in the rear, 
pressing on those in the van, created a terrible 
confusion, and in the uncertainty the batteries 
of Farragut's ships ceased fire, while the whole 
of Mobile Point was a living flame. Disaster 
was imminent. 

But not a second did Farragut pause. A 
harsh voice from the " Hartford" broke the 
brief but ominous silence. 

"What's the trouble?" 

Then Alden' s voice from the "Brooklyn" 

answered, — 

226 



FARRAGUT IN MOBILE BAY 

** Torpedoes." 

** Damn the torpedoes !" shouted the ad- 
miral. "Four bells. Captain Drayton, go 
ahead. Jouett, full speed." 

And the '' Hartford" dashed forward, passed 
the " Brooklyn," and assumed the head of the 
column. 

Over the line of mines they flew at full 
speed, and the men below could hear them as 
they scraped along the hull. It was the one 
way out of the difficulty, and a second's hesi- 
tation would have closed even this escape from 
a frightful calamity. The admiral looked 
astern at the manoeuvring of his vessels with 
a smile of satisfaction. It was a mag^nificent 
sight. 'At first they appeared to be fouling 
each other in dire confusion, at the mercy of 
the guns which still belched forth a merciless 
fire. But as the *' Hartford" dashed forward, 
one by one, as if by magic, they took their 
places. And he knew a grand tactical move- 
ment had been accomplished. 

Nor did he forget the poor men of the 
*'Tecumseh," struggling In the water where 
their ship had gone down, but, going down 
the rigging, ordered Jouett to lower a boat im- 
mediately and pick up the survivors. 

The '' Hartford" was nearly a mile ahead 

before the line could be straightened, and 

227 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

single-handed she fought the batteries and the 
gunboats, making straight for Buchanan's in- 
vincible ram, the ''Tennessee." Amid the 
fire of shot and bursting shell the admiral 
walked calmly back to his quarter-deck, giving 
a word of advice here and an order there. 
But soon the other vessels were able to pour 
in a storm of shot and shell that completely 
silenced the batteries. 

One by one he saw the gunboats sink, until 
only the "Tennessee" had to be accounted 
for. The admiral tried to ram her, and the 
solid shot of his broadsides rolled down her 
iron sides ; but she slipped away, pouring in a 
terrific fire at close range. She riddled the 
"Brooklyn," "Richmond, and " Mononga- 
hela," all three of which dashed at her, bows 
on, at fearful speed. The admiral again struck 
her a fearful blow, but apparently with no effect 
whatever. 

The ram had one great advantage : she was 
surrounded by enemies and could fire continu- 
ally, while the Union vessels had to use the 
utmost care not to fire into or collide with one 
another. An accident of this kind now hap- 
pened to Farragut's ship. The " Hartford" 
and the "Lackawanna" were both making at 
full speed for the ram. The " Hartford" had 

the better position; and the "Lackawanna," 

228 



FARRAGUT IN MOBILE BAY 

sheering off to avoid another ship, ran into the 
quarter of the flagship, just where the admiral 
was standing, cutting her down nearly to the 
water's edge. The shock of the impact nearly 
took him off his feet, but in a moment he was 
climbing over the side to see what damage had 
been done. 

His crew thought he was looking out for 
himself. Immediately there was a cry, " Get 
the admiral out of the ship." The whole 
thought of his crew, unmindful of themselves, 
was to get him to a place of safety. It was a 
mere sudden impulse. But Farragut was not 
the man to look to himself. Having satisfied 
himself that the " Hartford" could last, he 
again gave the order, ''Full speed," and set 
his prow again for the "Tennessee." 

But in the meanwhile the monitors had 
been hammering away at her with their heavy 
shot. Her rudder and smoke-stack were shot 
away, and her shutters jammed, and as the 
'' Hartford" bore down upon her for the third 
time she showed her white flag and surren- 
dered. 

The '' Hartford" was greatly cut up, — 

twenty-five killed and twenty-eight wounded, — 

but the admiral had not a scratch to show for 

his deadly encounters. He came on deck just 

as the poor fellows who had been killed were 

229 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

being carefully laid out on the port side of the 
quarter-deck. 

''It was a great victory, Drayton," said he, 
sadly, "but " 

And the men saw him turn aside, tears 
coursing down his cheeks. 

In truth, "there is nothing half so melan- 
choly as a battle lost, except a battle won." 



230 



AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY 

IN times like those we have but recently 
passed through, when the theories and 
studies of thirty years are being put to 
tests of fire and the sword, it is interesting 
to turn for a moment to our naval school at 
Annapolis, where the officers who planned 
our campaigns, directed our battles and our 
blockades, and commanded our ships were 
first trained to the serious business of war. 
Though the years which have passed since 
1 86 1 have made changes in the personnel sys- 
tem and appearance of the Naval Academy, 
the city of Annapolis itself is the same sleepy, 
careless, happy-go-lucky town of earlier days. 
Once a year, and only once, it rouses itself 
from its lethargy and assumes an air of gayety 
and importance which it may not even have 
shown when it earned for itself the title of 
"The Gayest Colonial Capital." During the 
latter part of May and the first of June each 
train that pulls into the ramshackle station 
bears a load of pretty young women, — sisters, 
cousins, sweethearts, — who come for the two- 
weeks' exercises, when the naval cadets are 

231 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

graduated, and for the June ball. It has been 
so since the founding of the Naval Academy, 
and will be so as long as youngsters in brass 
buttons are brought up to be professional 
heroes. 

In the old colonial days Annapolis was rich. 
There was an English governor, and grouped 
about him were some of the oldest English 
families. In the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury Annapolis had become refined, gay, ele- 
gant, and even dissipated. 

Not only was Annapolis in these old days 
the most lucrative place in the colonies for 
the practice of law, but it was the birthplace 
of such lawyers as Daniel Dulaney, William 
Pinckney, Charles Carroll, and Reverdy John- 
son. In those days, too, after the Revolution, 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the richest man 
in America, was one of the citizens. To-day, 
while the descendants of some of these families 
are still in possession of the homes of their 
forefathers, the seat of power and money of 
Maryland has changed to the commercial 
capital, Baltimore. The centre of social 
gayety, therefore, is to be found in the Naval 
Academy. 

The social feature of the life of the cadet 
must not be underestimated. The youngsters 
who present themselves as candidates for ad- 

2;;2 



AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY 

mission, appointed politically, come from all 
parts of the country, and represent every shade 
of opinion and training in the United States. 
They are a smaller image of the large mass of 
our people. The problem of bringing these 
different natures into accord with the conditions 
which they must face is no easy one ; and the 
weeding-out process, which immediately be- 
gins, is conducted by the superintendent — usu- 
ally a captain in the navy — and the officers 
under his command, under rules which have 
been adopted after sixty years of previous 
administrations. 

There is an indefinable something in the or- 
ganization of the place that makes an indelible 
impression upon the mind of the candidate, 
and as he enters upon his duties it does not 
take long to discover whether he is mentally 
and personally fitted for the long task before 
him. It was said In the old days that a seaman 
was born and not made. But modern warfare 
has so changed the conditions that, while the 
officers of the navy must always command men 
and have the instincts of the sailor, high mental 
attainments are also the requisite, and those 
instincts can be formed by experience and 
association. 

The course, then, in brief, is the training of 
the mind and the body, the school of the soldier 

233 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

and sailor, and the school of the gentleman. 
Here, then, is where the social influences of 
the Naval Academy are felt. Politics, like 
misfortune, makes strange bedfellows, and the 
scion of your Eastern banker may soon find 
himself detailed as the room-mate of the most 
impecunious and unpretentious of Uncle Sam's 
younger sons. It is the democracy of mili- 
tary training, in which every man's standing is 
governed alone by his professional qualifica- 
tions. Money or position can in no way affect 
his life. His rise or fall depends entirely upon 
his own worth. 

To the young man fortunate enough to se- 
cure an early appointment from his represen- 
tative in Congress, his new home, in the month 
of May, presents every attraction. From the 
moment he passes the gate, passes the marine 
guards, his eye meets the beautifully kept 
lawns of the campus and drill-ground, sweep- 
ing gradually down to the sea-wall on the north 
and east sides, where the Severn River flows, 
stretching out to the blue waters of Chesa- 
peake Bay, only three miles from old Fort 
Severn. To the left, as he enters, are the 
New Quarters and hospital. To the right, 
the sacred precincts of ''Lovers' Lane," into 
which he cannot go, under pain of displeasure 
of his upper classmen, until he has passed 

234 



AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY 

through the first, or ''plebe," year, and*this 
rule Is stringent. 

To pass the examinations successfully the 
candidate must be physically sound, and must 
have a knowledge of arithmetic, geography. 
United States history, reading, writing, spell- 
ing, English grammar, and the first principles 
of algebra. The number of appointees is 
limited by law to one naval cadet for every 
member or delegate of the House of Represen- 
tatives, one for the District of Columbia, and 
ten at-large; the District of Columbia and the 
at-large appointments being made by the Pres- 
ident. The course of the naval cadets is six 
years, — four years at the Naval Academy and 
two years at sea, — at the expiration of which 
time the cadet returns for the final graduation. 

The fourth-class man who enters in May has 
a certain advantage over the September ap- 
pointee, for he has the advantage of four 
months of practical instruction, which hardens 
his muscles and gets his mind into excellent 
shape for the harder work of the year. Having 
passed his examinations, the youngster goes to 
the office of the superintendent, where he takes 
the oath of allegiance which binds him to serve 
in the United States navy eight years, including 
his time of probation at the Naval Academy, 
unless sooner discharged. He deposits a sum 

235 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

of money for his books, and such other amount 
as may be necessary for his outfit, and is put 
to no further expense. 

His pay is five hundred dollars a year while 
at the Naval Academy, but, while he acknowl- 
edges its receipt to the paymaster by signing 
the pay-roll, he is furnished with only sufficient 
pocket-money to get along on. This sum of 
money is microscopic, and is usually spent as 
soon as received. Having procured his outfit 
from the storekeeper, he reports on board the 
''Santee." The "Santee" is one of the old 
sailing-frigates in the navy, and has for years 
been anchored at the naval dock as quarters 
for cadets during the summer time and for 
practical instruction in the drill of the old 
Dahlgrens. Here, too, is where the fractious 
cadets are placed in durance. 

Until within a very few years the new fourth- 
class men were sent upon the summer cruise 
of cadets, first on the " Dale," then on the 
*' Constellation" and the " Monongahela." But 
by a change in the curriculum the May ap- 
pointees in the fourth class do not take the 
summer cruise. The '' Monongahela," one 
summer, carried the line division of the first 
class, the second class, and the third class. 
Before this change the life of the "plebe" on 

the summer cruise was not a bed of roses. 

236 



AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY 

The cadets of the third class, until recently 
**plebes" themselves, were prepared to wreak 
upon their juniors all of the pent-up exuberance 
of the previous year. 

Hazing, in the old sense, has died away, and 
even the ''running" of ten years ago has been 
reduced to a minimum through the efforts of 
Captains Ramsey, Sampson, and Phythian ; but 
the ''plebe" was made to step around in a 
very lively manner, and to do most of the 
hauling on the heavy gear, while the third- 
class men did the complaining. On the 
*' Monongahela" the first, second, and third 
classes are now, as in the old days, considered 
as sailors, although a number of the blue- 
jackets are retained on the vessel. The cadets 
do their share of the work, and perform all 
the duties of men-of-war' s-men except scrub- 
bing, holy-stoning, and cleaning brass-work. 
The lower-class men are divided into watches 
with the regular blue-jackets, side by side with 
whom they assist in performing all the evolu- 
tions in working the ship. 

The cruise which follows is usually a pleasant 
one. There Is a lot of hard work to do, and 
in a short while the hands and muscles get 
hard, the white suits conveniently tarry, and 
the skins of the youngsters as brown as leather. 
But the life has its compensations, for at Fort- 

2Z1 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

ress Monroe they get Into their uniforms 
again and go ashore to the dances given there 
at the time of their arrival and departure. 

Meanwhile the engineer division of the first 
class is off on a cruise to visit the various navy- 
yards and docks of the Atlantic coast. Their 
course of instruction differs from that of the 
cadets on the '' Monongahela," and they are 
shown the practical side of engineering work 
on sea-going ships. Away down below the 
water-line of their vessel, in the stoke-hole, 
engine-room, or boiler-room, covered with 
grease or coal-dust, they do all the work of 
oilers, engineers, stokers, and mechanics, so as 
to be able to know accurately all the duties of 
those men, and to be able to command them 
in the years to come. 

In October the study-term begins, and the 
cadets are then given their quarters for winter. 
Most of them are in the building known as 
the New Quarters, while the others, cadet 
officers of the first class, are placed in the Old 
Quarters. The subtle distinction in the titles 
of these two sets of buildings is hardly appre- 
ciated at the Naval Academy, since they have 
both been built for thirty or forty years, and 
are in a frightful state of dilapidation. Two 
cadets of the same class are quartered in each 

room, and the discipline of household, as well 

238 



AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY 

as of person, begins immediately. Each room 
is plainly furnished, and contains two beds, two 
wardrobes, two looking-glasses, two iron wash- 
stands, a common table, and a broom. The 
charge of the room is taken by each cadet 
every other week, and this cadet is responsible 
for its general order and cleanliness. If the 
officer in charge should happen to inspect the 
quarters in his absence, and find anything con- 
trary to regulations, the cadet in charge is the 
one who is reported at the next morning's for- 
mation, although his room-mate may have been 
the delinquent. 

Throughout the year the reveille sounds at 
six o'clock. At a quarter to seven is morning 
formation, roll-call, and inspection. The ranks 
are opened, and the keen-eyed officer in charge, 
followed by the cadet officer-of-the-day and his 
ominous scratch-pad, with keen eyes looks for 
grease spots, specks of dust on blouses, tum- 
bled hair, or unblackened boots. After break- 
fast the sick-call is sounded, and cadets who 
are ill, or who think they are, report to the 
hospital. At eight o'clock the study begins, 
and lasts until half-past twelve. The cadets 
of each class are divided into sections of from 
six to a dozen each, and at the bugle-call are 
formed by sections and marched to their reci- 
tation-rooms for study. The morning is divided 

239 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

into two parts, and each part is divided into 
two periods, one for study and one for recita- 
tion. 

Briefly, the course of instruction is as fol- 
lows : Fourth class, first year : algebra, geom- 
etry, English, history of Greece and Rome, 
French, naval history of the United States, 
Spanish. Third class, second year : descrip- 
tive geometry, trigonometry, the Constitution 
of the United States, analytical geometry, me- 
chanical drawing, physics, and chemistry. Sec- 
ond class, third year : seamanship, principles 
of mechanism, differential calculus, integral 
calculus, physics, chemistry, mechanical draw- 
ing, and navigation. First class, line division : 
seamanship and naval tactics, ordnance and 
gunnery, theory and practice of navigation, hy- 
drographic surveying, least squares, applied 
mechanics, naval construction, ballistics, armor, 
and torpedoes. The engineer division has 
marine engines, boilers, machinery designing, 
mechanics, and naval construction. 

The first part of the course, it will be seen, 

deals with the simpler branches of study. The 

plan is not to burden the mind of the cadet 

with unnecessary knowledge, yet every branch 

which will directly, or even indirectly, contribute 

to his ultimate efificiency has its place in the 

curriculum. The end — the making of a thor- 

240 



AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY 

oughly trained seaman — is kept constantly In 
view. The simpler studies train the mind of 
the cadet to the technical work which follows 
In the third and fourth years, and in those two 
years he gets his principal technical and prac- 
tical training. Each one of the departments 
in which he studies has a head, usually a naval 
officer above the rank of lieutenant-commander. 
All of these heads of departments, with the 
superintendent and commandant of cadets, who 
is also head of the Department of Discipline, 
form the Academic Board. The afternoon 
classes begin at two and last till four, after 
which comes the afternoon drill, which lasts 
until 5.30 and completes the daily duties. 

It does not seem with all this work as 
though the cadet had very much time to him- 
self, but the cadet is not unhappy. Wednesday 
and Saturday afternoons are given over as 
recreation-hours, and football and baseball 
with neighboring college teams bring crowds 
of visitors into the Academy. The band plays 
upon the lawn, and the pathways are filled 
with fair visitors, who walk with their respec- 
tive heroes along the shady lanes. Saturday 
night, too, during the winter, hops are given, 
sometimes by officers and sometimes by cadets, 
and a gymnastic entertainment once a year 

gives the cadets the opportunity to show their 
16 241 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

prowess in boxing, fencing, and work on the 
gymnastic paraphernalia. 

Towards the end of May the annual exer- 
cises begin. The examinations finished, the 
arrival of the Board of Visitors is announced 
by the booming of cannons from the sea-wall. 
The cadets receive them on dress-parade, and 
the work of showing their progress during the 
year is at once begun. The Board of Visitors 
go out on one of the government tugs into 
Chesapeake Bay, and there they see the upper- 
class men tack, wear-ship, box, haul, and per- 
'form all the evolutions in a seamanlike manner 
on the old " Monongahela." Light yards are 
swung across with the precision of old men-of- 
war's-men ; sails are reefed, furled, or set in an 
incomparably short space of time ; and the 
cadets are down from aloft for their target 
practice. The target is towed out by a launch, 
anchored, and gun by gun, battery by battery, 
division by division, or by broadside, the cadets 
hammer away at it as though it were the vessel 
of a hostile power, more often than not blowing 
it entirely to pieces. 

Back again at the yard, they go through 
with their drill as infantry or artillery ; and last, 
but not least, comes the drill by companies for 
the honor of bearing the Naval Academy flag 

during the coming year. The judges in this 

242 



AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY 

competition are usually army officers, and 
every movement is carefully watched and 
marked. The captain of each company, be- 
fore going to this drill, selects its sponsor, — a 
very pretty girl, who, the drill over, presents 
the flag to the victorious company amid loud 
cheers from the whole battalion. 

The exercises are over. The cadet of the 
first class Is now ready to be graduated. Com- 
panies are formed up in hollow square, and the 
secretary of the navy in the centre, with a 
pleasant word to each, presents the diplomas 
to the graduates amid cheers from the com- 
panies. As quickly as he can the first-class 
man goes to his quarters and shifts into his 
new uniform, and comes back to the campus 
for the congratulations of his friends. That 
night the June ball takes place, and the grad- 
uate bids farewell to his old associations and 
goes out Into the world. 

Few articles that have been written about 
the Naval Academy have given anything of 
the personal side of the life of the cadet, — the 
side of his life that is an escape-valve from 
books and drills. There was a time, years 
ago, when smoking was permitted by the 
superintendent, and this is how the privilege 
was granted: One night, in January, 1879, an 
alarm of fire was sounded just before ten 

243 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

o'clock. The cadets, then nearly ready for 
turning In, appeared in all sorts of costumes, 
but reported promptly in the hall. When the 
battalion was assembled at fire-quarters, word 
passed that there was a fire in the city and they 
were expected to aid. 

With a cheer the cadets dashed to the en- 
gines, and, in spite of the cold and their scanty 
costumes, rushed out to the State-House 
circle, where seven or eight buildings were all 
ablaze. 

It was found that the hydrants could not 
supply enough water, so the cadet ofifiicers 
immediately took charge and ran a line of 
hose to the river. Four houses were already 
past help, but attention was immediately 
directed towards saving the others. 

In order to save three buildings it was found 
necessary to pull one of these burning struct- 
ures down. A heavy chain was passed through 
the doors and one of the windows, which was 
manned by the cadets and townsfolk, and the 
buildinof was in a short time demolished. In 
some unaccountable way, after part of the 
building had been pulled down, the chain was 
unshackled, and the townsfolk, who were now 
manning it, shot half-way up the street. So 
the cadets, in spite of their hard work, could 

always find time for skylarking. One officer, 

244 



AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY 

who was not very much liked, received the full 
force of the hose, which was in charge of two 
cadets, directly under the chin. Of course, 
apologies were in order, but the officer had 
to go home. At four o'clock in the morning 
the cadets, wet and tired out, returned to their 
quarters. 

The next day they found that it was gener- 
ally considered that they had not only saved 
the buildings but the greater part of the busi- 
ness portion of the town, as the wind had 
shifted, and the part of the town towards the 
harbor would have been completely destroyed. 
At formation the order of the superintendent 
was read. It said that, ''Whereas, the cadets 
had shown great bravery in the performance 
of their duty the night before, and had con- 
ducted themselves in a creditable manner, the 
superintendent desired to express his appreci- 
ation and grant to them the privilege of using 
tobacco." Ten minutes after breakfast there 
was not a man in the battalion of nearly four 
hundred who was not puffing away furiously 
on pipe, cigar, or cigarette, although not an 
ounce of tobacco had been drawn from the 
stock of the storekeeper. Whence it came is 
a mystery. 

The privilege was taken away in 1881 ; and 
though to-day there is no smoking allowed, 

245 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

and smoking is considered one of the most 
serious offences, yet it is safe to say that in 
many a secret nook this contraband is safely 
hid from the eye of the officer in charge. In 
the old days, after taps, or lights out, poker- 
parties were the order of the night. The win- 
dows and transoms were covered with blankets, 
and every ray was hidden from the eye of the 
zealous officer and watchman. But to-day the 
discipline is different, and the cadet, to pass 
the rigorous mental examination, has no time 
to transgress the written and unwritten law. 

There are, of course, many criticisms from 
various quarters as to the methods of instruc- 
tion at the Naval Academy, but it is not de- 
sirable to make rapid changes, in spite of new 
conditions, in a course that has proved success- 
ful for many years. It is asked that If cadets 
are to man steamships without sails, what is 
the use of educating them to officer sailing- 
vessels ? What was the necessity of building 
the "Bancroft," If she was not to be used for 
the practice-cruises of the cadets ? Why has 
it been proposed to build wooden vessels for 
their instruction ? The superintendent of the 
Naval Academy, Captain Cooper, Secretary 
Herbert, and Secretary Long have contended 
that officer-like qualities can best be attained 

by experience in sailing-vessels. They believe 

246 



AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY 

that intrepidity and alertness come from the 
old school of sailing-ships. 

On the other hand, many of the older officers 
believe that there is too much book-learning 
at the Academy and too little practical instruc- 
tion ; but most of them are willing to admit 
that the naval officer of to-day must be a scien- 
tific man to properly meet requirements of 
modern ships, and that he cannot acquit him- 
self properly unless he has a complete theo- 
retical training. It is certain that the cadet 
graduated now from the Naval Academy is 
thoroughly trained in his profession. He has 
never yet been shown deficient in knowledge 
of any duty which he has been called upon to 
perform, nor incapable of mastering the intri- 
cate parts of modern ships. Considering the 
age at which he leaves the Academy, he is 
better educated in his profession than the col- 
lege graduate, and is also trained in those 
qualities for command which make the Ameri- 
can naval service what it is to-day. He goes 
forth thoroughly equipped for his life-work. 



247 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

THE great General Grant, when a cadet, 
went through his course at West 
Point with one foot out of the Acad- 
emy and the other in. So curiously deficient 
was he in all the arts and sciences which 
theory insists must go to make the perfect sol- 
dier that he was always in the " Immortals." 

"Immortals" is the name of the section at 
the foot of the class, admission to whose pro- 
fane cult means small marks and the possible 
privilege of resigning at the end of the half- 
year. Immortals is a neat contraction of ''Les 
Immortals," — that is, lazy mortals. Immortal 
Grant became, but not in the way the academic 
reports of the time would have indicated. 

This has proved true again and again among 
the gradutes of the Naval Academy, as well as 
those of West Point. Though the " child is 
father to the man" in general tendencies and 
character, it does not follow that mere mental 
attainments are an indication of great genius 
in the practical operation of the great military 
professions. Works of the brain and works 

of the body and spirit are two things ; and 

248 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

though the finely-ordered mind controls to a 
degree both body and spirit, no such mechan- 
ism can ever accomplish great deeds in which 
heart and spirit are needed, though it may 
plan the details with a nicety to challenge criti- 
cism. A combination of all these qualities is 
rare, for the bookworm is seldom an enthu- 
siast on any subject which gets very far away 
from his theories. 

DOES SCHOLARSHIP COUNT IN WAR? 

The Spanish war has shown that it is not 
always the men who stand at the heads of 
their classes who lead in the more practical 
duties of ship and camp. Admiral Sampson, 
one of the greatest thinkers and most pro- 
found students in the navy, as a boy and as a 
man always led in everything he undertook ; 
but, on the other hand, Hobson, though one of 
the leaders of his class at Annapolis, was de- 
mure and retiring, hardly the man one would 
select to lead a forlorn hope into the jaws of 
death. 

One may go through the list man for man, 
and find as many backward in their studies as 
those who have carved high niches for them- 
selves in the Academy records. 

No proposition could cover the situation in 

a general way, for, after all, the men we have 

249 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

heard from were perhaps only lucky, — lucky 
in being chosen as the instruments of the 
result. There are hundreds — thousands — of 
officers in the service, some brilliant, some 
wise, some brave, some strong, as good as 
they, who have lacked only opportunity. The 
singling out of any names for special mention 
seems an injustice to them, — "the heroes of 
the heart." 

TAYLOR AND EVANS AS SCHOOL-MATES 

Forty years ago Harry Taylor and Bob 
Evans were boys together in Washington. 
They were school-mates and chums, fighting 
each other's battles and longing for the day' 
when they would be old enough to go to the 
Naval Academy and fight for their country. 
They were both lively, active lads, Taylor per- 
haps the quieter of the two. 

As their characters developed, Taylor be- 
came more of a student than Evans, and that 
became the distinguishing feature of their en- 
tire careers. While Captain Taylor has been 
the student of books. Captain Evans is known 
throughout the navy as a student of men and 
a '' man's man", in the best sense of the term. 
The friendship of youth continued without 
break throughout their young manhood and 

prime. The bond was strengthened when 

250 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

Evans, at the close of the Civil War, married 
his chum's sister. 

They were both in the famous three-year 
class which was admitted to the Naval Acad- 
emy in i860. They had hardly entered on 
their careers long enough to get the smell of 
the brine into their nostrils when the Civil 
War broke out. Here was the very chance 
they were longing for. But they ruefully saw 
two upper classes go out, and they knew that 
fighting of the larger sort was not yet for 
them. 

For two years they were kept at their books, 
when finally the welcome news came that they 
would be graduated in three years instead of 
four, if they could pass the examinations. In 
spite of their many disappointments, there was 
a wild whoop of joy up and down the corri- 
dors, and they set about their work in earnest, 
studying with a concentration which no diver- 
sion could dissipate. 

Taylor and Evans both left the Academy be- 
fore having been graduated, and were ordered 
to duty with the blockading squadrons along 
the Gulf and Southern coasts. They went to 
their ships gleefully, bearing the proud titles 
of "acting ensigns," but in reality merely mid- 
shipmen of three years' standing, — destined, 

however, to do the duties and have the respon- 

251 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

sibllltles of men many years their seniors in 
theoretical and practical service. 

HOW CAPTAIN EVANS SAVED HIS LEG 

Evans was in both attacks on Fort Fisher, 
and in the second fight he was shot twice. The 
wounds were severe, and he was sent into hos- 
pital. His leg was shattered badly, and after 
examining it carefully the doctors told the 
young sufferer bluntly that they would be 
obliged to amputate it. 

When they went out Evans made a resolu- 
tion that his leg was not to be cut off. He 
came to the conclusion that he would rather 
quit right there than to go through life one- 
legged. It was his own leg anyhow, and no- 
body had a better right to decide the question 
than himself 

By some means he got hold of one of the 
big navy revolvers, and had it secreted under 
his pillow when the surgeons, with a blood- 
curdling array of knives and saws, made their 
appearance on the scene and began prepara- 
tions to carry their threat into execution. But 
when the chief surgeon turned to the bed to 
examine the wounds he found himself looking 
into the black barrel of young Evans's navy 
revolver. 

*' Now, see here," said Evans, as the doctor 

252 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

retired In some alarm ; ''I want that leg to 
stay on. I need It. I will get well with that 
where it is, or not at all, and that's the end of 
It. That leg does not come off. Do you un- 
derstand what I mean ?" 

The doctor was dismayed. But he under- 
stood perfectly, and Evans carried the day. 
The wounds were dressed and healed rap- 
idly. In several months he was out again. 
But he limped then, and will as long as he 
lives. 

SIGSBEE AS A PRACTICAL JOKER 

Charles D. SIgsbee, writer, artist, hydro- 
graphic expert, mathematician, inventor, and 
incidentally the central figure, composed and 
dignified, in the greatest marine tragedy of 
modern times. Is the kind of a man most peo- 
ple — men, women, and children, — like to see 
and know. His brow can be stern, and no 
one knows that better than the people who 
have sailed under him ; but he loves peace 
better than war, and the twinkle behind his 
glasses never quite dies out. 

As a midshipman he was always the prime 
mover in any affair which could contribute to 
the gayety of existence ; was a better judge 
of people than he was of test-tubes, and a 
practical joker of ability, which is saying much. 

253 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

The fascination which the ocean holds for all 
boys of sound mind gained an early sway over 
young Sigsbee. He received his appointment 
to the Naval Academy just before the Civil 
War, in 1859. 

He liked the practical work, but could never 
settle down to the desperate grind of the aca- 
demic course. He found himself more often 
making caricatures of " Dom Roget," the 
teacher of Spanish (a language he has since 
mastered), than in poring over the verbs and 
adverbs in the text-book. They were good 
caricatures, too, and when the other, young- 
sters in the section saw them there was merri- 
ment which poor Dom Roget could not under- 
stand. But the professor solved the matter 
satisfactorily by marking all the delinquents on 
a low scale of credit, and, to be certain of the 
right culprit, Sigsbee lowest of all. 

The young artist used to make pictures of 
everything and everybody he saw, and write 
pieces about them, — sprightly literature which 
went from one end of the Academy to the 
other. And so when the end of the year came 
round he found that, instead of being enrolled 
on the academic scroll of fame, he was rele- 
gated to the lower half of the class, which they 
called the ''wooden" half 

He went back into the next class, — which 

254 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

entered in i860, — and with the advantage of a 
year of experience he obtained a position in 
the new class which he held until graduation 
time. He never quite got over his propensi- 
ties for making fun. 

He began as a joke, and afterwards kept 
it up, an anonymous correspondence with a 
member of his class. Sigsbee disguised his 
hand, and in the guise of ''Lily Gaines," a 
very fascinating young woman of susceptible 
tendencies, wrote to Midshipman Mullan in 
such endearing terms that for three months 
that young gentleman was kept in a state of 
alternate suspense and rapture. At last, in a 
burst of confidence some one told Mullan of 
the deception, and the correspondence sud- 
denly ceased. 

But in spite of all this Midshipman Sigsbee 
went out into the world to practise his profes- 
sion in stirring times, and ever acquitted him- 
self as a valiant officer and accomplished gen- 
tleman. As the months rolled into years the 
naval service could boast of no officer who 
studied harder or who brought more steadfast 
qualities into his work. 

THE BRAVE COMMANDER OF THE " WINSLOw" 

Lieutenant John B. Bernadou was the com- 
mander of the '' Winslow" in the fight at Car- 

255 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

denas, at which Ensign Worth Bagley, his sec- 
ond in command, was killed. The story of the 
fight these young officers made, until Bagley 
was killed, Bernadou was wounded, and the 
''Hudson" came and towed them out of dan- 
ger, has been told again and again, and the 
tale of it will go down into the history of the 
Spanish- American War as one of the pluckiest 
of which there is record. Bagley, being the only 
naval officer killed during the war, was heard 
of from one end of the country to the other, 
but little was told of Bernadou, his commander. 
Bernadou' s early career showed in several 
instances the fearlessness of his disposition 
and the sturdiness of his character. The boy's 
first idea was to go to West Point. Failing in 
this, he secured an appointment to the Naval 
Academy, where he entered with a fine stand- 
ing, which he maintained until he was graduated. 
He was always a brilliant worker, and in gunnery 
and foreign languages showed a most remark- 
able aptitude. To-day he speaks eight lan- 
guages, and is one of the foremost men in the 
navy as an authority on smokeless powder. 

THE MAN WHO NEVER KNEW FEAR 

Bernadou' s classmates say that he fears 

nothing on earth or water. His fearlessness 

overcomes any consciousness of self. 

256 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

One afternoon in October, 1881, the United 
States steamer '' Kearsarge," Captain G. B. 
White, lay at anchor in Hampton Roads. The 
weather had been stormy for a day or two, and 
the wind had kicked up a heavy sea. There was 
a strong tide running, and the vessel swung out 
on a long cable. A seaman by the name of 
Christoverson, who was boat-tender in one of 
the cutters swinging at the lower booms, went 
out and down the Jacob's ladder. In stepping 
to the thwart his foot slipped, and those on 
deck saw him disappear under the gray water. 

There was a hoarse cry of '' man overboard." 
Seaman Robert Sweeny, who saw the accident, 
running out along the boom, plunged in with- 
out delay, just as the man came up the second 
time. Bernadou, then a cadet-midshipman, 
heard the cry, and rushing to the gangway, saw 
the terrible struggle of Sweeny with the drown- 
ing man as the tide swept them out towards 
the sea. Bernadou tossed off his coat, and was 
overboard in an instant. Christoverson, in his 
fierce struggle, carried Sweeny down with him, 
the latter only breaking away to be carried 
down again. 

Bernadou by this time was within reach, and 
catching the drowning man from behind, man- 
aged to relieve Sweeny until a line was thrown 

to them, and they were finally hauled aboard 

17 257 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

in an exhausted condition. For this act both 
Bernadou and the sailor received the recom- 
mendations of their captain and the thanks of 
William H. Hunt, then the secretary of the 
navy. 

ONLY NAVAL OFFICER KILLED IN THE WAR 

Worth Bagley's career at the Naval Acad- 
emy was a triumph of the heart rather than of 
the mind. While he loved the service and 
hoped some day to fill a useful place in it, he 
found more to attract him in football and ath- 
letics than in calculus and least squares. But 
no man who ever entered was more beloved 
than he, and no man had better friends in the 
service and out of it. He was turned back 
twice, but entered, in 1891, the class of '95, in 
which year he was graduated. He was a mem- 
ber of the "Five B's," composed of Bennett, 
Barnes, Bagley, Breckinridge, and Baldwin, 
men who were close friends while they were at 
the Academy. 

But football was Bagley's ruling passion. 

During this time, too, the great series of games 

between West Point and Annapolis, between 

the army and navy, over which the entire 

United Service went mad, were played, and 

Bagley was on the victorious team of '93, and 

was named for the " All- America" team. 

258 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

Bagley roomed during the four years' course 
with his chum Breckinridge, who was washed 
off another torpedo-boat, the ''Gushing," and 
drowned, as he was trying to get into Havana 
a few days before the blowing up of the 
'* Maine." 

** Worthless" Bagley (as his intimates called 
him) and Breckinridge were never left much 
to themselves in their quarters, for their room 
was always crowded during recreation-hours 
with cadets skylarking or asking advice or 
assistance. There was another intimate and 
classmate of Bagley, D. R. Merritt, who was 
killed in the " Maine" disaster a few days after 
the drowning of Breckinridge. 

ROOSEVELT SAVED BAGLEY FOR THE NAVY 

When Bagley came up for graduation at 
the end of the four-years' course the doctors 
thought they discovered an irregular move- 
ment of the heart, and recommended that he 
be dropped. Bagley took his case to Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the 
navy. 

Roosevelt, looking at him through his glasses 
with a quick, critical glance, said, — 

''You are Bagley, the football player, are 
you not?" 

Bagley said he was. 

259 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

"Well, you are to stay In the navy while I 
am here. The service needs more men just 
like you." 

Then Bagley went on his two-years' cruise, 
and when he came back he was passed through 
without question. 



Captain Cook, Admiral Schley's chief-of- 
staff on the "Brooklyn," Captain Clark, of 
the "Oregon," and Commander Davis were 
room-mates in the famous class of Crownin- 
shield, Taylor, and Evans. The " Brooklyn" 
and the " Oregon," commanded by classmates 
and room-mates, fought almost side by side 
down the desperate flight to the westward, the 
"Oregon" farther inland, but both thundering 
their iron missiles on the " Colon" as she 
struggled to her doom. 

It is an interesting fact that Captain Clark, 
then holding the title of acting ensign, but 
really a midshipman, was the first one to 
communicate with the captain of the ram 
"Tennessee" when she was captured at Mo- 
bile Bay, while it was Captain Cook who 
received the surrender of the " Cristobal 
Colon." The third member of this trio was 
retired several years ago or he would have 

had a command in the same action. The 

260 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

affection which these youngsters bore one for 
the other was very much Hke that which ex- 
isted between Captains Evans and Taylor. 

Clark's heroism at the battle of mobile bay 

In the battle of Mobile Bay young Clark 
was on the forecastle of the ''Ossipee," then 
holding an important position in the line of 
ships that swung past the torpedoes after the 
gallant Farragut in the " Hartford." 

The forecastle was bare of any defence, and 
the position was exposed to all assaults of the 
fire, first from Fort Morgan and then from 
Fort Gaines, farther up. When the forts were 
passed, there followed a fierce fight with the 
gunboats and the invincible ram " Tennessee." 
Again and again the "Hartford," *'Ossipee," 
and other vessels of the fleet rammed her in 
succession, and young Clark saw her terrible 
ports fly open and send out just by him their 
awful discharge. 

At last, however, she became unmanage- 
able, her shutters were jammed, and the 
'' Ossipee," under full head of steam, was 
making for her. But while Clark was strain- 
ing his eyes through the smoke, a white flag 
was hoisted in token of surrender. Clark 
shouted to Johnson, the commander of the 

ram, to starboard his helm. But the reply 

261 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

came that his wheel-ropes were shot away. It 
was too late to keep from striking her, but the 
force of the blow was broken by the manoeuvre. 
This early experience was followed by the 
bombardment of Fort Morgan, — two import- 
ant actions before Clark had got into his early 
twenties. His fearlessness then, as now, 
needs no mention. 

POPULARITY OF CAPTAIN PHILIP AS A CADET 

It has been said that Captain Philip's public 
acknowledgment of God on the decks of the 
battle-ship *' Texas," after the fight before 
Santiago, was the natural expression of a 
deeply religious nature. But his classmates 
at the Naval Academy and the men who have 
sailed with him say that he is not more religious 
than other men in the navy, — not so religious 
as many, who always have their Bible on the 
table in their cabins and read it regularly when 
at sea or in port. 

They believe that he spoke on the impulse 
of the moment, his heart devoutly thankful 
that the victory had been achieved at so slight 
a loss, and willing that all men should witness 
his profession of faith. 

As a boy at the Academy, while he never 

surreptitiously drank, as others did, he made 

no pretence of being religious. He smoked 

262 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

whenever he got a chance, in his quarters or 
in the darknesses back of old Fort Severn, 
between the watchmen's rounds. He never, 
as other cadets did, gave his word not to 
smoke, and so he felt a perfect freedom to do 
it if he could keep from being caught. Like 
Sigsbee, he was a practical joker, and if you 
should go to any of the members of his class 
and ask them who was the most popular man 
in it, they would say, ''Jack Philip." 

THE VERSATILITY OF ADMIRAL SAMPSON 

In Admiral Sampson, the boy was father to 
the man. From boyhood his was a life of 
unneglected opportunities. Born of very 
humble parents, by the hardest of work and 
the most sincere endeavors he succeeded in 
obtaining his appointment to the Naval School. 
His mind, naturally studious, turned to the 
beginnings of the new profession with avidity, 
and so fine was his mind even then that, with- 
out trying himself unduly, he easily distanced 
his entire class and took first honors for the 
course. 

His classmates say that he was studious, 
but they do not say that he applied himself so 
closely to the work that he shut himself off 
from the diversions or recreations of the rest- 
hours. On the contrary, he was foremost in 

263 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

most of the sports of the day, and was, in his 
own way, one of the best athletes in his class. 

He was then, as he is now, an " Admirable 
Crichton," but his versatility did not diminish 
for him the serious aspect of any of the things 
he attempted. Some of his classmates called 
him cold, as his contemporaries out in the ser- 
vice do now, but when they wanted advice on 
any subject which seemed to require a reason- 
ing power entirely beyond their own, they 
said, '' Ask Sampson." He was not only high 
in his class councils, but dearly beloved, as he 
is to-day, by every man in it and every man 
who knew him. If people thought him cold 
then it was because they did not understand 
him. If they think him cold to-day it is be- 
cause he does not care to be understood by the 
men with whom he has no interest or sym- 
pathy. If arrogance begins to be a virtue, 
then repression born of modesty is a crime. 

To those men he cares for — now as in his 
youth — he has always a warm handshake and 
an open heart. His eye is calm, sympathetic, 
penetrating, stern, as the humor dictates, 
anything you please, — sometimes cold, but 
always hypnotic. If he wants the friendship 
of man or woman he is irresistible. To-day 
he is the authority on naval ordnance, an ex- 
pert on explosives, a capital seaman, a famous 

264 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

tennis-player, — the best-equipped man in the 
service for any work — or play — that can be 
put before him. 

BLUE, WHO DISCOVERED CERVERa's FLEET 

Victor Blue, who in his uniform made the 
fearless expedition ashore at Santiago, and 
actually saw for the first time the Spanish fleet 
within the harbor, is the kind of a man who 
does not have very much to say for himself, 
which is often a sign that a person is to be 
found ready when wanted. He was a mem- 
ber of the class of '^j, in which his work was 
fair, but not remarkable in any way. He lived 
quietly, receiving his quota of good and bad 
marks, but having no special distinction, even 
in his offences against the oracles of Stribling 
Row. 

He did not care much for " fems" (girls, in 
the vernacular), but towards his first class-year 
began to ''take notice." He played a guard 
on the " Hustlers," the scrub football team 
which struggles with the "Academy" eleven 
on practice-days, but never made the " Team." * 
He had plenty of grit, but was too light for 
the centre and not active enough for the ends. 
Blue is a fair specimen of the type of men 
who without ostentation have made our new 

navy what it is. Many men envy him, but 

265 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

no man begrudges him his numbers recently 
awarded for ''extraordinary heroism." 

YOUNG DEWEY AS A FIGHTER 

George Dewey entered the class of '58 at 
the Naval Academy at the age of seventeen. 
He was not a large boy, but fairly up to middle 
height, and strong and active in all athletic 
sports. It was not long after his entrance that 
he found an opportunity to show the fighting 
spirit that was in him. It was not altogether 
of his own seeking, but when he was weighed 
in the balance, even then he was not found 
wanting. 

The line between the Northern boys and the 
Southerners was clearly marked, and one day 
one of the Southerners called the young Ver- 
monter a " dough-face." 

Young Dewey awaited a favorable oppor- 
tunity, and struck his opponent so fair a blow 
that he knocked him down. There was a 
rough-and-tumble fight then and there, and 
Dewey's adversary came out second best. 

Later on another one of the Southerners 
insulted the young admiral, and there was an- 
other battle. But full satisfaction could not 
be obtained in this prosaic fashion, so the 
Southerner finally challenged young Dewey. 

The offer was promptly accepted, seconds 

266 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

were chosen, and the time and place were 
definitely settled upon. But some of Dewey's 
classmates, seriously alarmed at the aspect of 
affairs, and knowing that neither one of the 
principals was of a temper to falter, hastily 
informed the academic authorities, and the 
whole affair was nipped in the bud but a few 
hours before the hour set. 

Dewey was graduated in 1858, and stood 
fifth in his class. Of the sixty-five who had 
started in as candidates, but fourteen received 
their diplomas at the end of the four years' 
course. 



THE UNRECOGNIZED HEROES OF THE WAR 

Much has been said and written of the 
heroes of action and movement. The country 
from one end to the other has rung with their 
praises. But what of the unknown heroes, 
unhonored and unsung? What of the men 
who, because of their superior abilities in 
other lines, were doomed to physical inaction ? 
who performed their secret missions and 
labors skilfully, faithfully, uncomplainingly, 
while their classmates were being given num- 
bers over their heads, and the chance of a life- 
time for great deeds was being quietly passed 

by? 

267 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

THE REAL BRAINS OF THE WAR.. 

Captain A. S. Crowninshield, the Chief of 
the Bureau of Navigation, bore the brunt of 
the brain-work for the men and ships at the 
front. 

His bureau has to do with the ordering of 
all ships and all men, and Crowninshield, when 
he accepted the office, knew that the odds 
were against him. He knew that by his own 
orders he would put forward above him men 
who were many years his juniors in the ser- 
vice. He never winced, but went on perfect- 
ing the target-scores of the men behind the 
guns. When war was declared, he felt that, 
gun for gun, our navy could whip anything 
afloat. But he did not get out of the office. 
He could have had any command in Sampson's 
fleet. But he preferred to stay and carry out 
the work he had begun, in spite of the fact 
that each week, as younger men went over him, 
he saw the chances of hoisting the pennant of 
a fleet-commander grow fainter and fainter. 

If you were to ask Secretary Long who did 
the real brain-work of the war, he would un- 
hesitatingly answer, "Captain Crowninshield." 
Ask the younger officers in command of gun- 
divisions who is responsible for the straight 

shooting of the gun-captains, and they will 

268 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

say, *' Captain Crowninshield." Ask any 
captain of the fleet of victorious battle-ships 
and cruisers of Santiago or Cavite who con- 
tributed most to the victory of Santiago and 
Manila, and they will say, "Captain Crownin- 
shield." 

These are the facts, and no one in the ser- 
vice disputes them for a moment. If the 
people are in ignorance, it is because Captain 
Crowninshield will never talk of himself or his 
own affairs under any circumstances. 

Captain Crowninshield comes of a dis- 
tinguished New England family. He is a 
grandson of Jacob Crowninshield, an early 
secretary of the navy, and a great-nephew of 
Benjamin Crowninshield, also a secretary of 
the navy. Like all the Crowninshields of 
Salem, he was full of love of the sea. His 
father was a graduate of Harvard and a 
founder of the Porcelain Club. 

FILLING THE DUKE's SHOES WITH MUCILAGE 

Captain Crowninshield as a lad read and 
studied all the books he could find about the 
sea, upon which his ancestors, near and re- 
mote, had sailed. From the first he was de- 
termined to be a naval officer. To this end 
he went to a village where lived a member of 

Congress, who, he thought, might make him 

269 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

his appointee. The young man found the old 
member of Congress out in his field, ploughing. 
He liked the looks of the boy and gave him 
a half-promise of the appointment. Young 
Crowninshield was forced to wait a month, but 
at last the letter came, and with trembling 
fingers he broke the seal of the letter which 
made him a midshipman (a title which it is to 
be hoped will be restored ere long to the ser- 
vice). 

Some of his classmates were the present 
Captain Clark, of " Oregon" fame. Captain 
Harry Taylor, Drayton Cassell, Captain Wad- 
leigh, and Captain Cook, of the ''Brooklyn." 
His room-mate was Pierre d' Orleans, and 
many a time did Captain Crowninshield rescue 
the young foreigner when the jokes became 
too fast and furious. A favorite amusement 
with the midshipmen was to fill " Pete" d' Or- 
leans's shoes with mucilage. This practice, so 
far from making him feel like sticking to this 
country, persuaded the young duke to re- 
turn to his native land, where there were no 
wild American boys to tamper with his dignity. 

When the Academy was removed from An- 
napolis to Newport, young Crowninshield, of 
course, went with the school, with Evans and 
the others. He was told "that those who 

could pass the required examination at the 

270 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

end of three years could go out to the war as 
officers. 

Half of the class passed the examination. 
When one considers that no studying at night 
was allowed, that an officer made the rounds 
after lights were supposed to be out, and that 
at the sound of his footsteps the delinquent 
who was burning the midnight oil would be 
obliged to tumble into bed with his clothes on, 
throwing the wet towel which bound his head 
into the corner of the room, feigning sleep 
while a candle was passed across his face, one 
can understand why more young men of that 
class did not graduate at the end of the three- 
years' limit. 

SCOUTING IN THE ENEMY's COUNTRY 

There are many other gallant navy men of 
whom the public has not heard, but two more 
will suffice. Within a week after the decla- 
ration of war two young ensigns. Ward and 
Buck, the former in the Bureau of Navi- 
gation and the latter at the Naval Academy, 
disappeared from the face of the earth. So 
completely did they destroy all traces of them- 
selves that for all the Bureau of Navigation 
or their relatives seemed to know they might 
have ceased to exist. 

Speculation was rife concerning them, but 

271 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

nothing could be learned of their duties, the im- 
pression being, even among Navy Department 
officials, that they were installing a system of 
coast-signals in New England. Ward, it ap- 
pears, disguised himself as an Englishman, and 
went straight into the heart of the enemy's 
country, making his headquarters at Cadiz, 
the principal Spanish naval station, and from 
there sending the Navy Department contin- 
uous and accurate reports of the fighting 
strength and actual movements of the Spanish 
fleet. 

He was under suspicion, but watched his 
time, and succeeded in getting away to Porto 
Rico. There he was arrested as a suspicious 
character and spy. He managed, it is sup- 
posed through the British representatives, to 
obtain his release, and, escaping from San 
Juan, cabled the department a full account of 
the state of defences there and the move- 
ments of Cervera's fleet. While Ward was 
in Porto Rico, Buck was following Camara's 
fleet in the Mediterranean, keeping watch on 
its movements, and sending daily reports of its 
condition, armament, and plans. 

We do not know what is in the hearts of 
men. We do not know whether the men who 
did the creditable things during the war did 
them in spite of themselves, or whether in the 



OUR NATION'S NEW HEROES 

glory of action and adventure they took their 
lives into their hands gladly, fearlessly, for 
their country. We do know that there were 
hundreds ready and willing to court danger 
and death for a useful end who for lack of 
opportunity could not. 



i8 273 



HEROES OF THE DEEP 

ALL the long winter the "Polly J." had 
/ \ slept snugly in Gloucester Harbor, 
I'ig^gi^g' unrove and everything snug 
aloft that the wind could freeze or the ice 
could chafe. Careful eyes had watched her as 
she swung at her moorings, and rugged hands 
had gripped the familiar gear as the skipper 
or some of the men had made their periodical 
visits. But however gray and desolate she 
loomed, with her topmasts housed and the 
black lines of ratline and stay across the 
brightening sky, nothing could hide the saucy 
cut-under of the bow and the long, free sweep 
of the rail. 

The afternoon sun of March melted the 
snow on the south slopes of the fish-sheds, 
and great gray-and-green patches came out 
here and there against the endless white. 

A brisk breeze, with a touch of the spring, 
blew up from the south, and the '' Polly," 
heedless of the tide, turned her head to it, 
sniffing and breathing it, bobbing and jerking 

nervously at her anchor, impatient to be 

274 



HEROES OF THE DEEP 

dressed in her cloud of canvas, and away 
where the wind blows free and the curl dashes 
high under the forefoot. 

WHEN THE SNOW MELTS 

Ashore in Gloucester town there are signs 
a-plenty of the work to come. The sleepy 
village throws off her white mantle and rises 
from the lethargy of the winter past. The 
spring is in the air, and the docks and wharves, 
white and ice-trussed during the long, bleak 
winter, are trod by groups of men, rubber- 
coated and '' sou' westered," moving briskly 
from one shed to another. 

In the town they gather like the stray birds 
of spring that flutter under the eaves of the 
store-houses. By twos and threes they appear. 
On street corners they meet, pipe-smoking, 
reminiscent, gloomily hopeful for the future, 
and grateful that they have helped themselves 
over '' March Hill" without a loan from owner 
or buyer. And as they lounge from post- 
office to store, from store to shed, and back 
again, their talk is of dealings with owners 
and skippers, of vessels and luck. 

For luck is their fortune. It means larger 
profits by shares, new dresses for the wife and 
little ones, and perhaps an easy time of it in 
the winter to follow. It means that there will 

275 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

be no long, hard winter of it at the haddock- 
fisheries, at ''George's," where trawls are to 
be set in weather which makes fi'ozen hands 
and feet, and perhaps a grave in an icy sea, 
where thousands have gone before. 

The skipper of the " Polly," even before he 
gets his men, has broken out his gear and 
reckoned up his necessities for the run up to 
the Banks. If he ships the same crew he had 
the year before, they work in well together. 
The "Polly's" topmasts are run up with a 
hearty will and a rush. There is a cheerful 
clatter of block and tackle, and the joyous 
"Yeo-ho" echoes from one schooner to an- 
other as sail and rigging are fitted and run 
into place. 

The snow yet lingers in little patches on the 
moors when some of the vessels warp down 
to an anchorage. Dories are broken from 
their nests and skim lightly across the harbor, 
now alive with a fleet in miniature. Jests and 
greetings fill the air, as old shipmates and dory- - 
mates meet again, — Gloucester men some of 
them, but more often Swedes, Portuguese, and 
men from the South. 

For to-day the fleet is not owned in the vil- 
lages, and Gloucester, once the centre of the 
fishing aristocracy, the capital of the nation of 

the Banks, is now but a trading- and meeting- 

276 



HEROES OF THE DEEP 

place for half the sea-people who come from 
the North and East. 

The skipper of the " Polly J.," himself per- 
haps the scion of three generations of fishing 
captains, may wag his head regretfully, for 
fishers cannot be choosers ; but he knows that 
his fishing has to be done, and, after all, a 
" Portygee" is as good a sailor-man and dory- 
mate as another, — better sometimes, — if he 
keeps sober. 

So long as the ship-owner makes his credit 
good at the store for the people at home, the 
fisherman takes life as joyfully as a man may 
who looks at death with every turn of the 
glass. If he takes his pleasures seriously, it 
is because he lives face to face with his Maker. 
Nature, in the awful moods he knows her, 
makes trivial the little ills that flesh is heir to. 

So when the crews are aboard, and the 
stores and salt are being hoisted in, there is a 
hurry to be among the first away. Chains and 
windlasses creak and clang, nimble feet fly 
aloft, hoarse voices ring across the rippling 
water, and many a cheerful song echoes from 
ship to shore and back again. 

Willing hands, strangers for months to hemp 
and tar, lay on to the tackle, as spar and boom 
are run into place. The fish-bins below are 

cleaned and scrubbed to the very quick. 

277 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

Bright-work, if there be any, is polished, and 
sail-patching and dory-painting and caulking 
are the order of the day, and most of the 
night. The black cook, below in the myste- 
rious blackness of the galley, potters with 
saucepan and kettle, and when the provisions 
are aboard serves the first meal. There is 
coffee, steaming hot in the early hours of the 
morning, and biscuit and meat, — plenty of it. 
There is not much variety, but, with the work to 
be done above and below decks, a full-blooded 
appetite leaves no chance for grumbling. 

At last the bag and baggage of the crew are 
tossed aboard, — packs of tobacco innumerable, 
new rubber clothes, all yellow and shiny in the 
morning dampness, boots and woollens to 
keep out the cold of spring on the Bank Sea, 
• — all bought on credit at the store, to be 
charged against "settling-day." 

WAVING GODSPEED TO THE FISHER-FOLK 

It is morning, just before the dawn. The 
*' Polly J.," her new paint all silver in the early 
light, rides proudly at her anchor in the centre 
of the tideway. The nip of winter lingers in 
the air, but the snow is gone and the rigging 
is no longer stiff to the touch. 

It is just daylight when the last dory is 

hoisted aboard into its nest. Three or four 

278 



HEROES OF THE DEEP 

figures on the wharves, outlined against the 
purple sky and hills, stand waving Godspeed 
to their fisher-folk. Women's voices ring out 
between the creakings of the blocks, **Good 
luck ! Good luck ! ' Polly J/ ; wet your 
salt first, ' Polly J.' " It is the well-wishing 
from the hearts of women, who go back 
to weep in silence. Which one of them is 
to make her sacrifice to the god of winds and 
storms ? 

There is a cheerful answer from the " Polly," 
drowned in the flapping of the sails and creak- 
ing of the windlass. The anchor, rusty and 
weed-hung, is broken out and comes to the 
surface with a rush, while sheets are hauled 
aft, and, catching the morning breeze, the head 
of the schooner pays off towards Norman's 
Woe, the water rippling merrily along her 
sides. 

The figures on the wharves are mere gray 
patches in the mass of town and hills. The 
big sails, looming dark in the gray mists of the 
morning, round out to the freshening wind, 
and push the light fabric through the opal 
waves with ever-increasing speed. By the 
time the first rays of the rising sun have gilded 
the quivering gaff of the main. Eastern Point 
is left far astern, and the nose of the vessel 

ploughs boldly out to sea, rising with her 

279 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

empty bins light as a feather to the big, heavy 
swell that comes rolling in, to break in a 
steady roar on the brown rocks to leeward. 

There is man's work and plenty of it during 
those sailing days past "George's," Sable 
Island, and the St. Lawrence. The provisions 
and salt are to be stowed and restowed, bal- 
last is to be shifted, sails to be made stronger 
and more strong, fish-bins to be prepared, old 
dories to be made seaworthy, rigging to be 
tautened, and reels and lines to be cleared and 
hooked. Buoy-lines and dory-roding are to 
be spliced, and miscellaneous carpenter work 
takes up the time about the decks. For a 
skipper unprepared to take advantage of all 
that luck may throw in his way does an in- 
justice to his owner and his crew. But, busy 
as the time is, the skipper has his weather- 
eye open for the ''signs." The feel of the 
air, the look and color of the cold, gray Bank 
Sea, tell him in so many words how and where 
the fish will be running. At last a hand takes 
the heavy sea-lead and moves forward where 
the line may run free. Deliberately the line is 
coiled in great turns around the left hand, and 
then, like a big pendulum, the weight begins 
to swing with the strong right arm. 



280 



HEROES OF THE DEEP 

IN THE EXCITEMENT OF THE FIRST CATCH 

There is a swirl of the line as the lead goes 
all the way over, a splash forward, and, as the 
skipper luffs her up into it, the line comes up- 
right, and gets a depth of thirty fathoms. As 
she comes up into the wind, the noisy jib 
flaps down with a run, and the anchor drops to 
the sandy bottom. Now the buckets of bait 
are tossed up from below, and the skipper 
leaves his helm to take to the lines. Over 
the sides and stern they go, dragging down to 
leeward. 

There is quiet for a moment, and then a line 
runs out. There is a tug as the strong arm 
checks it and hauls it in quickly, hand over 
hand. There is a gleam of light, a swish at 
the surface, and the fish flies over the rail, 
flopping helplessly on to the deck, the first 
catch of the season, — a big one. 

Another tug, and another, and soon the 
work is fast and furious. It takes honest 
elbow-muscle, too, to haul ten pounds of 
floundering cod up five feet of freeboard to the 
rail and deck. Soon the deck is covered with 
the long, slim, gleaming bodies, and the boys 
of the schooner have man's work in tossing 
them into the gurry-pen amidships. Before 

the pen is filled, the fishes stop biting as sud- 

281 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

denlyas they struck on, and there is a rest for 
a while to bait-up and clean down. 

If the signs hold good, the skipper will order 
the men out to set trawls, for the smell of the 
dead fish sometimes drives the school away. 



HANDLING THE TRAWLS 

The ''trawls" are only an elaboration of 
the hand-lines. They are single lines, several 
hundred feet in length, with short lines and 
bated hooks at intervals. They are taken out 
by members of the crew in their dories, buoyed 
and anchored. It is the work of tendine these 
trawls that takes the greatest skill and fear- 
lessness. It is in the work of hauling and 
baiting the lines in all weathers that the great- 
est losses of life occur. There is no room on 
the decks of the schooners for heavy boats, 
and as many such craft are needed, five or six 
are piled together amidships. A block and 
purchase from aloft are their hoisting-tackle. 

They are handy boats, though light, and two 
men and a load of fish can weather the rough 
seas, if your fisherman is an adept with his 
oars. But they are mere cockle-shells at the 
best, and are tossed like feathers. The *' cod- 
ders" are reckless fellows, and they will put 

out to the trawls day after day in any kind of 

282 



HEROES OF THE DEEP 

weather, fog or clear, wind or calm, with not 
even a beaker of water or a piece of pilot- 
bread. 

A LONELY NIGHT ON THE BROAD ATLANTIC 

A night alone on the broad Atlantic in 
an open dory seems to have no terrors for 
them. Each year adds its lists of casualties 
to those that have gone before. Fogs have 
shut in, seas have risen, and morning has 
dawned again and again with no sign of the 
missing men. Sometimes an upturned dory 
is found, with her name — the " Molly S.," or 
the " Betty T.," in honor of the owner's 
shore-mate — on her pointed bow, but only the 
gray ocean can tell the story of the missing 
men. 

When the " Polly's" day's luck is run, all 
hands take stations for dressing down. It is 
the dirty part of the business ; but so quickly 
is it done that the crew seems part of a mech- 
anism, working like clockwork. Two men 
stand at the gurry-pen, their long knives 
gleaming red in the sunset. The fish is slit 
from throat to tail with one cut, and again 
on both sides of the neck. It then passes 
to the next man, who with a scoop of his 
hand drops the cod's liver in a basket and 

sends the head and offal flying. The fish 

283 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

slides across the dressing-table, where the 
backbone is torn out by the third man, who 
throws it, finally, headless, cleaned, and open, 
into the washing-tub. 

The moment the tub is filled, the fish are 
pitched down the open hatch to the fifth man, 
who packs them with salt snugly in the bins. 
So quickly is the work done that the fish seem 
to travel from one hand to another as though 
they were alive, and a large gurry-pen is 
emptied and the bin packed and salted in less 
than an hour. 

WHEN THE day's WORK IS DONE 

The head of the black cook appears above 
the hatch-combing, and his mouth opens wide 
as he gives the welcome supper call. Down 
the ladder into the cuddy they tumble, one and 
all, and lay-to with an appetite and vigor 
which speaks of good digestive organs. Con- 
versation is omitted. Coffee, pork-and-beans, 
biscuit, — nectar and ambrosia, — vanish from 
the tin dishes, until the cook comes in with the 
sixth pot of steaming coffee. 

At last, when the cook vows the day's al- 
lowance is eaten and the last drop of cofTee 
is poured, the benches are pushed back, to- • 
bacco and pipes are produced from the sacred 
recesses of the bunks, and six men are puff- 

cS4 



HEROES OF THE DEEP 

Ing out the blue smoke as though their lives 
depended on it. 

The schooner rolls to the long ground-swell, 
her lamp-bracket swinging through a great 
arc and casting long, black shadows, mon- 
strous presentiments of the smokers, which 
move rapidly from side to side over the misty 
beams and bulkheads like gnomes. A con- 
certina, a mouth-organ, and perhaps a fiddle, 
are brought out, and a sea-song, an Irish jig, 
or something in unspeakable Portuguese, rises 
above the creaking of the timbers and the 
burst of foam alongside. 

But the work is not done yet. It is never 
done. The ship is to be cleaned down and 
the gurry-pen and dory are to be sluiced out 
in readiness for the morrow. A vig-il is to be 
kept, watch and watch, and woe be to the 
youngster who tumbles off his hatchway to the 
deck from sheer weariness. 

WHEN A STEAMER LOOMS UP IN THE FOG 

If there should be a fog, — and hardly a 
day or a night passes without one, — the dan- 
ger is great. When the white veil settles 
down over the schooners the men on deck can 
hardly see their cross-trees. Foot-power 
horns are blown, the ship's bell is tolled stead- 
ily, while conch shells bellow their resonant 

285 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

note from the trawlers in the dories. But it 
is all to no purpose. For the great siren 
comes nearer and nearer every second, and 
the pounding of the waves against the great 
hulk and the rush of resisting water grow 
horribly distinct. 

There is a hazy glimmer of a row of lights, 
a roar and a splutter of steam, a shock and 
the inrush of the great volume of water, a 
shout or two from the towering decks and 
bridge, and the great body dashes by disdain- 
fully, speed undiminished, her passengers 
careless, and unmindful that the lives and for- 
tunes of half a dozen human beings have 
hung for a moment in the balance of Life and 
Death. But records have to be made, and 
the gold-laced officers forget to mention the 
occurrence. The men on the schooner do not 
forget it, though. More than one face is 
white with the nearness to calamity. 

''What was she, Jim?" 

''The 'Frederick.' I'd know her bloomin' 
bellow in a thousand." 

They lean out over the rail and peer into 
the gray blackness, shaking their fists at the 
place where she vanished in the fog. 

The man who gets his name in the news- 
paper and a medal from his government is 

not the only hero. And the modesty with 

286 



HEROES OF THE DEEP 

which the Gloucester fisherman hides his ster- 
ling merit is only convincing proof of the fact, 
— Gloucester is a city of heroes. 

For grit and devotion the case of Howard 
Blackburn surpasses understanding. 

THE COURAGE OF THE UNNAMED HEROES 

Blackburn and his dory-mate left their 
schooner in a driving snow-storm. Before 
they had been at the trawls long the weather 
had become so thick that they couldn't see 
ten feet from the dory's gunwale. The wind 
shifted and put them to leeward of their ves- 
sel. There was never a sound of bell or horn 
through the thickness, and, though they pulled 
to windward, where they thought their skipper 
lay, the vessel could not be found. They 
were lost, and the sea was rising. Then they 
anchored until dawn. 

When the snow stopped falling, they saw the 
schooner's light, a tiny speck, miles to wind- 
ward. To reach it was impossible. The situ- 
ation was desperate. Wave-crest after wave- 
crest swept into the dory, and all but swamped 
her. Time after time she was baled out, until 
it seemed as if human endurance could stand it 
no lono-er. Blackburn made a sea-anchor for 
a drae, but in throwingr it out lost his mittens 

overboard. It was horrible enough to fear 

287 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

drowning in the icy sea, but as he felt his hands 
beginning to freeze the effort seemed hopeless. 
With hands frozen, Blackburn felt that he 
was useless, for his dory-mate was already al- 
most helpless with exposure. So he sat down 
to his oars and bent his freezing fingers over 
the handles, getting as firm a clutch as he 
could. There he sat patiently, calmly, keep- 
ing the dory up to the seas meanwhile, — wait- 
ing for his hands to freeze to the oars. The 
dory became covered with ice, and pieces of it 
knocked against the frozen hands and beat 
off a little finger and a part of one of the palms. 
During the second day Blackburn's dory-mate 
gave it up, and Blackburn laid down beside 
him to try and warm him. But it was useless. 
The dory-man froze to death where he lay. 

FOR FIVE DAYS ADRIFT AND STARVING 

When Blackburn felt the drowsiness coming 
over him, he stood up and baled as the boat 
filled. The third day dawned without a ray 
of hope, and not a morsel to eat or a drop to 
drink, so he stuck the oar through his wounded 
fingers and rowed again. 

The fourth day he saw land. He did not 
reach it until the afternoon of the fifth day, 
when he landed at a deserted fish-wharf. No 

one could be found, and he was too weak to 

288 



HEROES OF THE DEEP 

move farther. So he lay down, more dead 
than alive, and tried in vain to sleep, munch- 
ing snow to quench his thirst. 

The next day he went out in the dory to try 
to find some signs of life, and in about three 
hours, the last remnant of his strength being 
gone, he saw smoke and the roofs of some 
houses, and he knew that he was saved. Even 
when he reached the shore in a pitiable condi- 
tion, he would not go into the house until they 
promised him to get the body of his dory-mate. 

This heroic man lost his hands and the most 
of his toes, but he reached Gloucester alive. 
The story of his grit and devotion to his dory- 
mate are to-day told to the young fishermen 
of the fleet, and the men .of the Banks will 
sing his praises until Time shall have wiped 
out all things which remain unrecorded. 

WHERE THE COD ABOUND 

On some of the schooners, by the middle of 
the season most of the salt is " wet." It is 
then that the '' Polly J." follows the fleet up to 
the " Virgin." 

This is a rocky ledge, many miles out in the 
desolate Bank seas, which rises to within a 
few feet of the surface of the ocean. Here 
the cod and camplin abound, and here, when 

it is time for them to run, most of the schooners 

19 289 



PIKE AND CUTLASS 

come to anchor, sending out their little fleets 
until perhaps two thousand dories and schoon- 
ers are afloat at the same time, within a dis- 
tance of two or three miles of one another. 
When the schools of camplin come to the sur- 
face and begin to jump, the dories all close in 
on them, for the fishermen know that the cod 
are after them. Almost as quickly as the lines 
can be baited and cast overboard the fish strike 
on, and the work is steady and hard until the 
dories, loaded down almost to the gunwales, 
have made several trips of it, and the salt in 
the bins shows a prospect of being ''all wet" 
before the week is out. 

The few days towards the end of the season 
at the ''Old Virgin" are a race between the 
ships at catching and dressing down. The 
rival crews work from dawn until dark. 

At last the big mainsail of the victor — per- 
haps the " Polly J. " — is hauled out, the chain 
is hove in short, and the dories from less for- 
tunate schooners crowd alongside with good 
wishes and letters for the folks at home. 
Anchor up, the flag is hoisted, — the right of 
the first boat off the Banks, — and the proud 
schooner, low lying in the water with her 
fifteen hundred quintal, bows gracefully to 
each vessel of the fleet at anchor as she 

passes them, homeward bound. 

290 



HEROES OF THE DEEP 

WHEN THE SCHOONERS MOVE UP THE HARBOR 

Homeward bound ! — there is magic in the 
word. Though the first vessel to head to the 
southward is proud among the fleet, she has 
a burden of responsibility upon her, for she 
carries every year news of death and calamity 
that will break the hearts of many down in 
Gloucester, and the flags she flaunts so gayly 
must come to half-mast before she sights the 
hazy blue of Eastern Point. 

During those long summer months a lonely 
wife goes about her household duties down in 
Gloucester town. There is a weight upon her 
heart, and until the fieet comes in and she 
sees the familiar face at the front gate, happi- 
ness is not for her. Day after day she listens 
for his footsteps, and after supper, when the 
season draws to a close, she walks down to 
where she can look far out to sea. 

Then a schooner, heavy laden, appears 
around the Point. She comes around and 
moves up the harbor slowly, — oh, so slowly. 
The flag the wife has seen is half-masted, and 
she knows that some woman's heart is to 
break. Will it be hers ? 

THE END. 



291 



By Sydney George Fisher. 

Men, Women, and Manners in 
Colonial Times. 

Illustrated with four photogravures and numerous head and tail 

sketches in each volume. Two volumes. Satine, in a 

box, $3.00; half calf or half morocco, ;556.oo. 

SECOND EDITION. 

" The author's vv^ork is a blending of grave history, amusing anec- 
dote, extracts from diaries, and graphic word pictures. He has an 
admirable knack of liveliness that is quite Frenchy, and stimulates 
the reader into a ravenous delight. Puritan, Pilgrim, Cavalier, 
Quaker, and Catholic are made to re-enact their Colonial parts, and 
the resulting drama is full of action, humor, wit, and pathos." — 
Boston Globe. 

♦' These two volumes, in delicately colored satine, are fascinating 
in their panoramic view of a whole era that abounds in picturesque 
and diverting incident. Discretion and taste were required in the 
selection, and literary art in the presentation. These are revealed 
by Mr. Fisher, and the result is social history in the most engaging 
style." — Philadelphia Press. 



The Making of Pennsylvania. 

The Evolution of the Constitution of the 
United States. 

Each volume. i2mo. Buckram, ^1.50. 



I. B. LIPPINCOTT COiMPANY, PHILADELPHIA. 



BY SYDNEY GEORGE FISHER. 



THE TRUE With numerous illustrations, portraits, 

DC\TTAI\AI1\T and fac-similes. Crown octavo. Cloth, 

DCiNJAiVUlN |2.oo. Uniform with "The True 

FRANKLIN. George Washington." 



"Mr. Fisher has done a service to American literature and 
history which is not to be measured alone by the facts supplied 
in his book. There is a sentimental value to his study, which 
resides in its effect upon the public mind in making us realize 
the true proportions of one of our few great men. Washington 
and Franklin are the true figures in our early history to which 
the verdict of the world has given lasting fame. Paul Leicester 
Ford has changed Washington from a myth into a human 
being. Mr, Fisher has done the same for Franklin. Of the 
two heroes Washington was the less understood. But the 
popular conception of Franklin in its way was also far from 
the truth. The result of Mr. Fisher's analysis of Franklin will 
be to make him more distinctly a great American than ever he 
was to us before. Mr. Fisher evidently has made a careful 
study of Franklin ; first, as he reveals himself in his own 
writings and in his life ; and, secondly, as his biographers and 
those who were contemporary with him have estimated him. 
He destroys some popular delusions concerning him, and, on 
the other hand, brings out more clearly and forcibly than hereto- 
fore the greatness of certain qualities of his character which 
have been rather lost sight of or neglected. Mr. Fisher has 
done his work with the painstaking care and skill that have 
made his various other books along historical lines of recognized 
merit. He writes clearly, frankly, and without prejudice." — 
Philadelphia Eventing Bulletin. 



J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA. 



The True George Washington. 



BY 



PAUL LEICESTER FORD, 

Author of 
" The Honorable Peter Stirling," etc. 



With twenty-four full-page illustrations. Crown 8vo. Cloth, deckle 
edges, $2.00; three-quarters levant, ;555.00. 



" This book is a monument of industry." — New York Nation. 

" This is a wonderfully interesting book." — Buffalo Cotmnercial. 

" Mr. Ford's book is rich in new matter which commends itself as interesting 
as well as valuable." — Washington Tivies. 

" Mr. Ford has delved with diligence and with rich reward into contemporary 
records, correspondence, and traditions, and gives an entertaining account of colo- 
nial times and of the personal traits of the Father of His Country." — Chicago 
Advance. 

"Mr. Ford's book is important out of all proportion to its size, and will 
probably be read so long as the name of Washington continues to be revered. 
Brushing aside the hysterical panegyrics of would-be biographers and historians 
as well as super-laudatory passages in works otherwise trustworthy and meritorious, 
Mr. Ford resolutely set out to acquire real knowledge of the man, George Wash- 
ington. Few of the other heroes of history could pass unscathed through an 
examination so thorough and so rigid. Every attainable fact that helps to show 
the Father of His Country as he was in his social and family relations has been 
carefully considered." — Boston Evening Gazette. 

" This work challenges attention for the really valuable light which it throws 
upon the character of George Washington. The picture which Mr. Ford here 
draws of him is careful, life-like, and impressive in the extreme. While his ex- 
haustive researches have resulted in humanizing Washington ' and making him 
a man rather than a historical figure,' a fair and intelligent reader, we submit, 
will arise from the glowing chapters of Mr. Ford's work with a larger conception 
of the character, endowments, and equipment of the first of Americans. . . . 
The v/ork embodies a surprising measure of information on a most important as 
well as interesting subject." — Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. 



J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA. 



BY HON. JOHN BIGELOW. 



THE LIFE OF 

Written by himself. Now first 
L) C IN J A i V\ 1 IN edited from original manuscripts 
FRANKLIN, ^^i^^ kom his printed corres- 
pondence and other writings. 
Revised and corrected, with additional notes. Three 
volumes. Crown octavo. Cloth, $4.50; half calf, 
J9.00 ; three-quarters calf, gilt top, uncut edges, $9.75. 

FOURTH EDITION. 



"Mr. Bigelow has again revised his splendid work, first 
published twenty-three years ago, and incorporated such dis- 
coveries as have been made in the past five years. The editor 
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upon which the work was constructed of letting Franklin tell 
his own story in his own way, beginning with the autobiography 
and continuing the narrative with a most careful mosaic of 
Franklin's voluminous letters. And it is to be credited to Mr. 
Bigelow that the ever-increasing fame of Franklin has made 
such substantial advance in our own day, since such con- 
temporary impetus was given to the study of the man and his 
services by this very 'Life of Franklin.' It is a unique biog- 
graphy, or rather autobiography, and, of course, it is un- 
approachable in the case of its own particular subject. Until 
an equally tireles and copious letter-writer as Franklin can be 
found another such work is impossible." — Philadelphia Press. 



J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA. 



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